You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Africa North
Egypt to expand Gaza buffer zone to up to 2 kilometers
2015-01-07
[IsraelTimes] Hundreds of families in Rafah to be evicted as Cairo ramps up crackdown on arms smuggling to Islamists in the Sinai

Egypt has in recent days begun the second stage of creating a buffer zone between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gazoo Strip.

The current zone is being expanded from 500 meters to a kilometer, which means the destruction of some 1,200 homes in Egyptian Rafah. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
 The Times of Israel has learned, there will be additional stages, which will ultimately expand the buffer zone to between 1,500 and 2,000 meters.
Gazans do like to dig, and Hamas needs that smuggling income.
The plan will result in the eviction of hundreds of families from the area, initially to El-Arish and in the future to New Rafah, a suburb of sorts that is to be built next to the current Rafah, and New Ismailiya, which will be built near the existing city on the banks of the Suez Canal.

These buffer zones are meant to help the Egyptian military in its fight against the fundamentalist Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
...Supporters of Jerusalem, the current pen name of al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula...
 group, which has recently joined the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
, at least symbolically. The army?s operation in the Sinai has been continuous in recent months, with 16-17 Egyptian battalions operating in the peninsula. The forces include commando, armored, and infantry units.

By the army?s estimates, the operation is bearing fruit, and has forced dozens of jihadis to flee the Sinai for Libya. There has also been a sharp decline in terrorism in the Sinai.
By the army?s estimates, the operation is bearing fruit, and has forced dozens of jihadis to flee the Sinai for Libya. There has also been a sharp decline in terrorism in the Sinai, and what activity remains is concentrated in the northeastern corner of the peninsula, in Rafah and Sheikh Zaid.

Egyptian intelligence has specific information on assistance that Sinai snuffies have been receiving from the Gazoo Strip. Many activists trained in Gazoo, and received arms there that they have been using against Egyptian forces.

That is the source of the urgency around creating the buffer zone: the goal is to cut the jihadis off from their Gazoo supply route. On Monday Egyptian media reported on a jihadist cell that enjoyed considerable help from Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, and tried to infiltrate Sinai through tunnels. Most of the tunnels aren?t open, but occasionally smugglers on both sides of the border manage to build a new one. The Egyptian army recently uncovered a 1,700-meter passage.
Gazans really do like to dig.
Cairo has received cooperation from residents of Egyptian Rafah,
"You gonna cooperate, or do my men gotta shoot you?"
"Of course we'll happily cooperate, Effendi, out of patriotic love for our ancient nation. Please don't hurt us!"
even though locals are only being given a couple of hundred dollars for every home destroyed in the process of creating the buffer zone.

Egyptian intelligence also recently identified another smuggling route other than the tunnels ? the sea. Though there is a fence stretching out to sea along the Sinai-Egypt border, smugglers in Zodiac boats have been bypassing it to reach the beaches on both sides.

Most of these boats are carrying components used to build rocket launchers, and kabooms. The rockets themselves are also being assembled by the Sinai jihadis.

Construction of the initial 500-meter (550-yard) buffer zone along 10 kilometers (six miles) of the border comes after an October 24 suicide kaboom that killed 30 Egyptian soldiers. After that incident, Egypt declared a three-month emergency in parts of the northern Sinai.

The Rafah crossing is Gazoo?s only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel.
Posted by:trailing wife

#4  Dig Dug video game was prolly a big hit over there
Posted by: Frank G   2015-01-07 21:31  

#3  They built the pyramids, I like this direction.
Posted by: Shipman   2015-01-07 18:10  

#2  Imagine if Israel was doing it

The answer is simple - do a "reverse Moses".
Posted by: Pappy   2015-01-07 10:49  

#1  Imagine if Israel was doing it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2015-01-07 10:23  

00:00