Egypt built a more than 3 kilometer wall last week and continued to clear a large area along its border with Gaza, BBC Verify found.
This comes after Israel warned that it is preparing for a ground offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Palestinian city has seen a huge increase in its population in recent months.
Egyptian authorities say “no provisions are being made” for displaced Palestinians and that the area is intended to be a “logistics center” for aid.
But a worker at a UK charity, which is part of humanitarian efforts in Gaza, told the BBC: “I have never seen land cleared on such a large scale.” for a logistics center of these characteristics and that his organization was not aware of any such plan.
What do the latest images show?
In recent satellite images you can see that more than 16 square kilometers have been cleared just across the border from Gaza.
The area began to clear in early February, but over the past week it has widened dramatically.
Now it seems that sections of wall are being built around this area.
On February 14, about 0.8 kilometers of wall were visible on satellite images, but more recent images indicate that more than 4 kilometers have already been erected.
The wall appears to be being built simultaneously in three locations. In the image below you can see the construction in the southwest corner of the cleared area.
Near the building materials you can see what looks like a crane and other vehicles.
In the southeast corner, a buildup of trucks can be seen along the main road leading from northern Egypt to Gaza.
Some of these trucks are parked off the main road and inside the newly cleared area.
What is the area for?
Following reports that the area was intended to host Palestinian refugees, Egypt publicly denied that it was making such preparations.
Since the start of the Gaza war, following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, Egypt has repeatedly said it would not open its border to refugees.
Cairo took that stance partly because it does not want to appear complicit in the large-scale displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, but also out of economic and security concerns.
Israel, for its part, indicated that “it has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt.”
Authorities in Egypt’s North Sinai province issued a statement saying that “the armed forces are establishing a logistics area to receive aid for Gaza” and relieve congestion on roads near the border.
The local governor noted that the area was being prepared for “truck waiting areas, secured warehouses, administrative offices and accommodation for drivers.”
However, the BBC spoke to a humanitarian expert, who is part of a group coordinating aid efforts in Gaza, and she indicated that they have not heard of any such plan.
“If there was a plan to suddenly increase capacity by building some sort of hub, I would think the Egyptian authorities would have shared it.” [con las agencias de ayuda]”, said.
The aid worker did not want to be identified as it could complicate the relationship between the humanitarian organization she works for and the Egyptian authorities.
“Storage capacity in Egypt is something that is discussed in almost every meeting. Since this has not been shared, my assumption is that that is not the plan,” he added.
We showed the recent satellite images to several security experts to find out what they thought about its possible purpose.
Andreas Krieg, senior lecturer in security studies at Kings College London, said: “You don’t need to clear that much land to accommodate waiting trucks. “To me, it looks like Egypt is preparing for the worst-case scenario.”
“If you put this into perspective of how big this area is, 16 square kilometers of trucks, that’s thousands and thousands of trucks. “There has never been a situation where there are thousands of trucks waiting at the border.”
Graphics by Filipa Silverio
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