Egypt–Gaza border
On 1 October 1906, the Ottoman and British governments agreed on a boundary between Ottoman-ruled Palestine and British-ruled Egypt, running from Taba to Rafah.
When Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982, Rafah was divided into Egyptian and Palestinian parts, splitting up families, separated by barbed-wire barriers.
[5] During the Second Intifada, which began in 2000, Israel widened the buffer zone to 200–300 meters and built a barrier wall mostly of corrugated sheet metal, with stretches of concrete topped with barbed wire.
In 2002, hundreds of houses in Rafah were destroyed to widen the buffer zone and for the building of an eight meter high and 1.6 kilometres long metal wall along the border.
On 14 May, a large IDF force entered the "Brazil block" of Rafah and in heavy fighting, as reported by unrwa, 12 Palestinians were killed and 52 injured.
[5][8] Around midnight the same day, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an interim order, temporarily barring the IDF from demolishing homes in the refugee camp, if the action was not part of "a regular military operation".
On 18 May, the Israel government declared that the plan to widen a buffer zone along the Egyptian border was cancelled,[12] while the same day the army massively invaded Rafah and continued its large-scale destruction.
[13] According to HRW, the IDF's justifications for the destruction were doubtful and rather consistent with the goal of having a wide and empty border area to facilitate long-term control over the Gaza Strip.
[5] An army plan to dig a moat along the border was dropped in 2005 after it became clear that it would likely be rejected by Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, because it required the destruction of 3,000 more homes in Rafah.
The sources also stated that the project has alarmed the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which charges an annual $2,500 for the right to operate a tunnel.
[18] In 2010, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared support for the barrier, adding: "It is the Egyptians’ sovereign right in their own country.
[20] Cairo's main Al-Azhar University officially backed the government's decision saying that it was the "state's right to build along its walls facilities and obstacles that will enhance its security.
"[21] Militant Islamist group Hamas, the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, opposed the barrier and called it a "wall of death".
[22] The Islamic Action Front, a Jordanian Islamist group, criticized Egypt for the barrier and accused it of "collaborating" with Israel and the United States.
[40] In November 2015, large areas of soil collapsed as a result of the flooding, threatening Gazan homes in Rafah near the Saladin Gate.
[42] According to Human Rights Watch, between July 2013 and August 2015, Egyptian authorities demolished at least 3,255 residential, commercial, administrative, and community buildings along the border, forcibly evicting thousands of people.
[50] It was repurposed in 2018, when Hamas militants manned the Gaza side and taxed incoming cargo, which included goods with controversial dual use (civilian and military),[50] apparently without much external supervision.
The analysts said Egypt could become a haven and a battleground for small Salafist militant groups such as Jund Ansar Allah, Army of Islam and Jaljalat, which have been squashed by Hamas since it took control in 2007.
[55] After the fall of the Mubarak regime in 2011, Egypt relaxed restrictions at its border with the Gaza Strip, allowing more Palestinians to cross freely for the first time in four years.
By September 2021, Egypt had destroyed more than 3,000 smuggling tunnels over six years by flooding them or by pumping in toxic gas, at times resulting in deaths.
