North Sinai Gov. Abdel Fatah Harhour announced Thursday that the entire city of Rafah would be demolished to complete phase two of a plan to create a Sinai buffer zone along the border with Gaza. In addition to the 680 homes destroyed in the first phase, an additional 1,220 homes in the city will be demolished, resulting in the eviction of nearly 2,044 families. Harhour said that a new Rafah city is being established to accommodate former residents. The Egyptian government decided last November to double the width of a buffer zone from 500 meters to a kilometer. The buffer zone extends across 10 kilometers of Egypt's border with Gaza. The goal of the zone is to prevent militants from infiltrating into Egypt from the Gaza Strip. The Sinai Peninsula has been the scene of frequent terrorist attacks against Egyptian police and armed forces since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, the group which has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, announced their allegiance to the Islamic State militant group in early November.
