Egypt said bolstering troops along Gaza border, fearing Palestinians will try to flee expanded IDF op

Egypt is bolstering its forces along its shared border with Gaza ahead of the IDF’s planned offensive to capture Gaza City due to concerns that the mass evacuation of Palestinians from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south will lead to chaos along the border, according to Arabic and Hebrew media reports.

Close to a million civilians, or almost half of the Strip’s population, have been residing in Gaza City, many of whom have started evacuating southward in anticipation of Israel’s offensive, although no official evacuation warnings have been issued yet.

Egyptian officials are concerned that this mass evacuation of Gaza City’s residents could lead to Palestinians fleeing over the border to Egypt, reports say.

As such, Arabic-language media say some 40,000 Egyptian soldiers are now deployed in the northern Sinai area, ready to man the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) border that separates it from the Gaza Strip.

An unnamed Egyptian official tells the London-based Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al Jadeed that Cairo views the possible outpouring of Gazans into Egypt as a potential national security threat, which would create a humanitarian and security crisis in the Sinai region.

Egyptian sources tell the news outlet that the mass deployment also serves to send a message to Israel that it rejects any attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians into other countries, including Egypt.

In response to a query from the Kan public broadcaster, the IDF tells the outlet that “any introduction of military capabilities into Sinai is carried out in coordination with the IDF and the political echelon.”