The Egypt–Palestine border, [1] also called Egypt–Gaza border, is the 12-kilometre (7.5 mi) long border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. There is a buffer zone along the border which is about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long.
The Rafah Border Crossing is the only crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It is located on the international border that was confirmed in the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Only passage of persons takes place through the Rafah Border Crossing; as such, the Egypt–Gaza border is only open to the passage of people, not of goods. All cargo traffic must go through Israel, usually through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Gaza–Israel barrier.
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. [2] Although after World War I, Mandatory Palestine was also under British control, the Egypt–Palestine boundary was maintained to control the movement of the local Bedouin. [2] From 1948, Gaza was occupied by an independent Egypt. Consequently, the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt proper was a mere administrative boundary without border control. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and again there was nominal border control.
In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty that returned the Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip, to Egyptian control. As part of that treaty, a 100-meter-wide strip of land, known as the Philadelphi Route, was established as a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. [3] In the peace treaty, the re-created Gaza–Egypt border was drawn across the city of 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. [2] [4]
Under the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, the Philadelphi Route buffer zone was a 100-meter-wide strip of land along the Gaza–Egypt border. Until 2000, the actual buffer zone was 20–40 meters wide with a 2.5 to 3 metres high concrete wall topped with barbed wire. [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. [6] The construction of the buffer zone required the demolition of entire blocks of houses at the main entrance to Rafah's central thoroughfare. [5]
Blockade of the Gaza Strip |
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Crossings |
2004 |
Philadelphi Accord |
2006 |
Economic sanctions |
2007 |
Fatah–Hamas battle |
2008 |
2009 |
Viva Palestina "Lifeline 3" |
2010 |
2011 |
2015 |
Freedom Flotilla III |
2016 |
Women's Boat to Gaza |
2023 |
Israeli "total blockade" |
2024 |
2024 Gaza freedom flotilla |
Since 2001, the IDF demolished Palestinian houses in Rafah to create the buffer zone. 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. The wall also extended two meters underground. The wall was built about 80–90 meters from the border, which doubled the width of the patrol corridor. After the metal wall was completed in early 2003, demolitions continued and even increased dramatically. [5]
After the death on 12 May 2004 of five Israeli soldiers who were operating in the buffer zone, the Israel government approved on 13 May a plan to further widen the buffer zone, which would require the demolition of hundreds of homes. [7] The Israeli military recommended demolishing all homes within 300 meters of its positions, or about 400 meters from the border. The plan elicited strong international criticism.
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. Israeli forces began demolishing houses in the Qishta neighbourhood and destroyed scores of houses. [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". [7] Nevertheless, the IDF continued the destruction of homes until 15 May 5:00 a.m. because of "immediate military necessity, a risk to soldiers, or a hindrance to a military operation", [9] raising the number of destroyed houses to just over 100. [8]
On 16 May, the High Court ruled that the IDF may destroy homes according to their needs; the IDF had pledged that it would refrain from unnecessarily demolishing houses. [10] [11] The next day, Israel started Operation Rainbow.
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. [8] On 19 May 2004, the United Nations Security Council condemned the killing of Palestinian civilians and the demolition of homes. [12]
Between 1 April 2003 and 30 April 2004, 106 houses were demolished in Rafah. [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. [14] [15] Instead, the IDF started the building of a 7–9 meters high (about 20–30 feet) concrete wall along the border in a 60–100 meter (about 200–300 feet) wide security strip, equipped with electronic sensors and underground concrete barriers to prevent tunnelling. [14]
In December 2009, Egypt, with help from the United States, started the building of an Egypt–Gaza barrier along the Gaza border, consisting of a steel wall. [16]
In October 2014, Egypt announced that they planned to expand the buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, following a terrorist attack from Gaza that killed 31 Egyptian soldiers. [17] The buffer was created "in a move meant to halt the passage of weapons and militants through cross-border smuggling tunnels but which also puts more pressure on the Palestinian militant Hamas group." [18]
Egyptian authorities ordered residents living along the country's eastern border to evacuate their homes prior to their demolishing. The buffer zone was to include water-filled trenches to thwart tunnel diggers. It was to be 500 meters wide and extended along the 13 km border. [19] Following the announcement of Ibrahim Mahlab, the Prime Minister of Egypt, that any residents unwilling to move wilfully would be forcefully removed from their homes, many residents left the area. [20] On 17 November 2014, Egypt announced that the buffer zone would be doubled to one kilometre, due to the longer-than-expected tunnels that had been discovered. [21]
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed with the operation, arguing that the smuggling tunnels under the border had produced 1,800 millionaires, and were used for smuggling weapons, drugs, cash, and equipment for forging documents. Abbas had previously recommended the sealing or destruction of the tunnels, by flooding them, and then punishing the owners of the homes that contained entrances to the tunnels, by demolishing those homes. [22] [23]
On 8 January 2015, Egypt's expansion resulted in the destruction of about 1,220 homes, [24] while destroying more than 1,600 tunnels. [25] Some of the tunnels discovered were over one kilometre long, and contained lighting, ventilation, and phone systems. [26] The total cost of this phase of the buffer zone was expected to cost $70 million. [27] In February 2015, in response to the buffer zone, ISIS beheaded 10 men whom they believed were spies for Mossad and the Egyptian Army. [28]
In June 2015, Egypt completed its digging of a ditch at the Rafah Crossing Point, 20 meters wide by 10 meters deep. It is located two kilometres from the border with Gaza outside of Rafah City and is part of the enlarged buffer zone. Expansion of the trench along with watchtowers was planned. [29] [30]
On 11 September 2015, the Egyptian army began to pump water from the Mediterranean Sea into the tunnels. According to the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, flooding of the tunnels had been carried out in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. [23] A number of Palestinian factions condemned the flooding of the border with sea water, because it posed a serious threat to environment and ground water. [31] In November 2015, large areas of soil collapsed as a result of the flooding, threatening Gazan homes in Rafah near the Saladin Gate. [32] Salty water flowed out from the ground, contaminating the soil and making it unusable for agriculture. [33]
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. [34]
In 2024, Egyptians announced that they are building a buffer zone at the Egypt–Gaza border. [35] [36]
Rafah Crossing was designed primarily for pedestrians, but used during the 2023 war as the main entry for aid trucks. [38]
Salah al-Din Gate, since February 2018 a secondary commercial border crossing 4 km northwest of Rafah Crossing, and named after Salah al-Din Road, the Strip's main north-south thoroughfare. [39] Before 2018, the gate allowed two-way humanitarian access for Gaza and Sinai residents, but didn't serve commercial purposes. [39] 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), [39] apparently without much external supervision. [38] As of July 2023, "goods have also entered Gaza regularly from Egypt, via the Rafah crossing, controlled by the Egyptian authorities, and then through the adjacent Salah Ad Din Gate, controlled by the local authorities." [40] Since 2018, the Salah Ad-Din Gate has seen a steady growth in traffic, so that in 2022/2023, over 50% of the construction materials, 25% of the food and c. 40% of non-food items entered the Strip through Salah Ad-Din Gate crossing. [41] In 2023, c. 36% of the total imports to the Strip arrived through the Gate. [41]
The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
The Gaza–Israel barrier is a border barrier located on the Israeli side of the Gaza–Israel border. Before the 2023-24 Israel-Hamas war, the Erez Crossing, in the north of the Gaza Strip, used to be the only crossing point for people and goods coming from Israel into the Gaza Strip, with a second crossing point, the Kerem Shalom border crossing, used exclusively for goods coming from Egypt, as Israel didn't allow goods to go directly from Egypt into Gaza through the Egypt–Gaza border, except for the Salah Al Din Gate, opened in 2018.
Rafah is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the capital of the Rafah Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. As a result of massive bombardment and ground assaults in Gaza City and Khan Yunis by Israel during the Israel–Hamas war, about 1.4 million people are believed to be sheltering in Rafah as of February 2024.
The Gaza Strip smuggling tunnels are smuggling tunnels that had been dug under the Philadelphi Route along the Egypt–Gaza border. They were dug to subvert the blockade of the Gaza Strip to smuggle in fuel, food, weapons and other goods into the Gaza Strip. After the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, was split by this buffer zone. One part is located in the southern part of Gaza, and the smaller part of the town is in Egypt. After Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the Philadelphi Corridor was placed under the control of the Palestine Authority until 2007, when Hamas seized power in 2007, and Egypt and Israel closed borders with the Gaza Strip.
In 2004, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rainbow in the southern Gaza Strip on 12–24 May 2004, involving an invasion and siege of Rafah. The operation was started after the deaths of eleven Israeli soldiers in two Palestinian attacks, in which M113 armored vehicles were attacked.
Yamit was an Israeli settlement in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula with a population of about 2,500 people. Yamit was established during Israel's occupation of the peninsula from the end of the 1967 Six-Day War until that part of the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in April 1982, as part of the terms of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Prior to the return of the land to Egypt, all the homes were evacuated and bulldozed.
The Philadelphi Corridor, also called Philadelphi Route or Saladin Axis, is the Israeli code name for a narrow strip of land, 14 km in length, situated along the entirety of the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt.
The Israeli Combat Engineering Corps is the combat engineering forces of the Israel Defense Forces.
The Rafah Border Crossing or Rafah Crossing Point is the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine's Gaza Strip. It is located on the Egypt–Palestine border. Under a 2007 agreement between Egypt and Israel, Egypt controls the crossing but imports through the Rafah crossing require Israeli approval.
On 23 January 2008, Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip set off an explosion near the Rafah border crossing, destroying part of the 2003 wall. The United Nations estimates that as many as half the 1.5 million population of the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies. Due to fears that militants would acquire weapons in Egypt, Israeli police went on increased alert.
A blockade has been imposed on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip since Hamas's takeover in 2007, led by Israel and supported by Egypt. The blockade's current stated aim is to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza; previously stated motivations have included exerting economic pressure on Hamas. Human rights groups have called the blockade illegal and a form of collective punishment, as it restricts the flow of essential goods, contributes to economic hardship, and limits Gazans' freedom of movement. The blockade and its effects have led to the territory being called an "open-air prison".
Canada Camp was a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Sinai near Rafah, formed in 1972 and evacuated in 2000. The Camp was named after the Canadian contingent of the United Nations Emergency Force, which formerly had a camp at the location. Most refugees were relocated to Tel al-Sultan in southern Gaza.
Rafah is a city in North Sinai and Egypt's eastern border with the Gaza Strip. It is the capital of Rafah center in North Sinai Governorate, and is situated on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Egypt.
The Egypt–Gaza barrier is a steel border barrier constructed by Egypt along its 14 km border with the Gaza Strip. The Rafah border crossing is the only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Egypt–Palestine relations are the bilateral relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Palestine. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause and he favored self-determination for the Palestinians. Although the Egyptian government has maintained a good relationship with Israel since the Camp David Accords, most Egyptians strongly resent Israel, and disapprove of the close relationship between the Israeli and Egyptian governments.
Kerem Shalom border crossing is a border crossing at the junction of two border sections: one between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and one between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. It is used by trucks carrying goods from Israel or Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
Salah al-Din Road is the main highway of the Gaza Strip, a territory of the State of Palestine. The highway extends over 45 kilometers, spanning the entire length of the territory from the Rafah Crossing in the south to the Erez Crossing in the north. The road is named after the 12th-century Muslim general Salah al-Din.
The August 2012 Sinai attack occurred on 5 August 2012, when armed men ambushed an Egyptian military base in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 soldiers and stealing two armored cars, which they used to infiltrate into Israel. The attackers broke through the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Israel, where one of the vehicles exploded. They then engaged in a firefight with soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during which six of the attackers were killed. No Israelis were injured.
A vast network of tunnels used for smuggling and warfare purposes exists under the Gaza Strip. The underground tunnel network allows Hamas and other militant groups to store and shield weapons, gather and move underground, communicate, train, launch offensive attacks, transport hostages, and retreat without being detected by Israeli or Egyptian authorities. This network of tunnels is colloquially referred to as the Gaza metro. According to General Hassan Hassanzadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces in Tehran, there are more than 500 kilometers of tunnels.