Cairo : The Egyptian army ordered Tuesday to evacuate the houses in North Sinai’s Rafah city that are located alongside the border line with the Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone as part of its anti-terrorism war, a senior security official said.
The procedures came a few days after a car bomb attack on a big military checkpoint north of nearby Sheikh Zuweid city left some 30 soldiers killed and tens others injured, Xinhua reported.
Egypt announced a three-month curfew and state of emergency in some parts of North Sinai in reaction to the attack.
“Military forces toured Rafah houses adjacent to the border and demanded them to evacuate within 48 hours, while the residents complained that they needed at least two weeks to evacuate in addition to quick compensation,” the source added.
He added that the security forces intend to spread troops along the 13-km border line and start digging a canal alongside the border with Gaza to prevent the digging of smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.
The Egyptian authorities have been facing a rising wave of terrorism since the overthrow of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013 and the following crackdown on his supporters that left about 1,000 killed and thousands more arrested.
The anti-government attacks extended from the Sinai Peninsula to reach the capital Cairo and other provinces across the country. Sinai-based, Al Qaeda-inspired Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and its fellow Ajnad Misr groups claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.