Egypt Doubles Size of Gaza Buffer Zone

Egypt announces it will double the depth of a buffer zone along border with Gaza, after discovering more underground tunnels.

By Ben Ariel, INN

gaza_tunnels_01Egypt will double to one kilometer (0.62 mile) the depth of a buffer zone it is clearing on its border with Gaza, Reuters reported on Monday.

“A decision was taken to increase the buffer zone along the border in Rafah to one kilometer. The decision…came after the discovery of underground tunnels with a total length of 800 to 1,000 meters,” the state MENA news agency said.

The decision on the buffer zone was made following two deadly attacks in El-Arish, which killed dozens of soldiers and were claimed by Egypt’s deadliest terrorist group, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis.

As part of the buffer zone plan, the Egyptian military is seizing and evacuating homes belonging to Gazans.

Residents of Sinai, who complain they have long been neglected by the state, say they rely on smuggling trade through the tunnels for their living and the creation of the buffer zone has stoked resentment. Egyptian authorities see them as a threat and regularly destroy them.

 

Egyptian sources have revealed that Hamas terrorists had provided the weapons for the lethal attacks in El-Arish through one of its smuggling tunnels under the border to Sinai.

In the recent Operation Protective Edge, the IDF was faced with lethal attack tunnels from under mosques, but nevertheless was hit by massive international criticism for its defensive operation – a criticism that has been completely absent regarding Egypt’s “buffer zone” plan.

Egypt has been cracking down on Hamas, in recent months banning the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot and implementing a siege on Gaza.

While Egypt has deployed troops to the Sinai to fight the rampant jihadist terrorism in the region in coordination with Israel, concerns remain that the Egyptian disarmament of the peninsula as part of its peace agreement with Israel may be in danger of collapsing altogether, posing a potential military threat to Israel.

 

November 18, 2014 | 30 Comments »

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  1. @ honeybee:

    ”The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” was stated by Dick the Butcher in ”Henry VI,” Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73. Dick the Butcher was a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law and order, he could become king.

  2. Felix Quigley Said:

    treason laws.

    “First we hand all the lawyers” Wm. Shakespeare

    “The law is an Ass” Charles Dickens

    ” The horse the pulls the lawyers hearse, snickers all the way” Charles Dickens

  3. Felix Quigley Said:

    Yes very good question and it needs discussion before answer.

    Discussion will never solve the problem action might. We have been discussing same topics for years and no consensus of opinion to which there are almost as many different opinions as commenters.

    I asked You Felix, what You suggest. Screw ideology, we have many enemies and need first to survive them. Long term thinking won’t cut it, we need immediate options that effectively put us in control of the reins of political power NOW and Defenses against the predictable Blow-back of America, Russia and the EU.

    What do you suggest now!!!!

  4. Well he is way ahead. Israel has never done anything like that. In fact the opposite. Israel needs to act in two directions. One start expelling al Islamists. At same time a no holds barred clamp down on traitors like Livni and Labour

  5. Felix Quigley Said:

    As I have said el Sisi is way ahead of Netanyahu. Need new party in Israel. Where is lt;

    Need to resurrect Lev Bronstein (aka Trotsky) Nothing else will work. get a move on Felix I’ll provide the shovel.

  6. @ Felix Quigley:
    “Parties” in the israeli political cesspool are a dime a dozen. Cloned and self serving garbage.
    What we need is LEADERSHIP with cojones and people armed to their teeth. The people will have to raze to the ground the hamulas from which the islamic bestial murderers hatch.
    The later is violently prevented by the trash in control of all state functions.

  7. That is the way is done. KOL HAKAVOD to a true leader of his people.
    Here the renegade unJews suffer great pains about destroying the murderous islamic beasts nests and even release the ghastly scum from jail.
    Our Har Habait is a subject of “status quo”…
    Unbelievable, bottom of the pit lack of any national identification.