Egypt clears Gaza border area to create security buffer

ISMAILIYA, Egypt — Egypt began clearing residents from its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to create a buffer zone following some of the worst anti-state violence since President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown last year.

A day after being ordered by the army to move, many in the area had already packed their belongings and begun to leave when an announcement from Cairo made the eviction official.

"If any resident resists leaving the area in a cordial manner, their property ... will be forcibly seized," read the decree signed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb.

General Abdel Fattah Harhour, the governor of increasingly lawless northern Sinai region, told journalists the departing residents would be compensated for their lost homes.

Egypt declared a state of emergency in the border area after at least 33 security personnel were killed on Friday in two attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, a remote but strategic region bordering Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

It also accelerated plans to create a 500-metre deep buffer zone by clearing houses and trees and destroying tunnels it says are used to smuggle arms from Gaza to militants in Sinai.

A teacher at a border area school said the government, which approved the buffer zone plan at its Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, should have given residents more notice and compensated them before asking them to leave.

"What is happening will reduce people's love for their nation and make them lose trust in the government," said the teacher, who declined to be named.

One resident said people in the area had been given three options: Money to compensate for their property, an apartment in a nearby village or a plot of land on which to build.

Each displaced family is due to receive 900 Egyptian pounds ($125) to help pay for three months rent elsewhere, Harhour said, while compensation for lost property is being calculated.

Increasing army control

Border residents say about 680 houses are set to be demolished. Security forces have previously destroyed about 200 houses on the border after discovering entrances inside to smuggling tunnels leading into the Gaza Strip .

Security sources said residents living within 300 metres of the border were being evicted in the first phase of the plan. The next phase will cover another 200 metre-deep strip.

Residents of Sinai, which has long been neglected by the state, say they rely on the tunnels for their livelihoods. But Egyptian security forces see them as a security threat and regularly destroy them.

As well as clearing a border strip, Egypt has expanded the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians who block roads or damage state facilities and has authorised the army to help guard roads, bridges, oil fields and other public installations.

No group has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack but similar operations have been claimed by Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, Egypt’s most active Sinai-based jihadist group.

Officials say militants operating in Sinai are inspired by Islamic State, the Al Qaeda offshoot now targeted by US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

A commander from Ansar has told Reuters that IS has advised it on operating more effectively.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who overthrew Morsi last year, has since cracked down on the former president’s Muslim Brotherhood, banning it and jailing thousands of its members.

Militant attacks in Sinai have increased since Morsi’s overthrow. The Brotherhood, which says it is a peaceful movement, has distanced itself from the violence and condemned Friday’s attack.