Gaza–Egypt border

The Gaza–Egypt border is the 12 km long border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Along the border exists a buffer zone with the Philadelphi Route, which is about 14 km long.

The Rafah Border Crossing is the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It is located on the international border that was recognized by the 1979 Israel–Egypt Peace Treaty. Only passage of persons takes place through the Rafah Border Crossing. All traffic of goods is diverted to the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

By the Ottoman–British agreement of 1 October 1906, a boundary between Ottoman ruled Palestine and British ruled Egypt, from Taba to Rafah was agreed upon. Although after World War I Palestine was also under British control, the Egypt-Palestine Boundary was maintained to control movement of the local Bedouin. From 1948, Gaza was occupied by meanwhile independent Egypt. Consequently, the border between Gaza and Egypt proper became a mere administrative boundary without border control. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

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 Gaza and Egypt. 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 an Egyptian and a Palestinian part, splitting up families, separated by barbed-wire barriers.

As early as 1971, Israel started mass house demolitions throughout the Gaza camps, including the two camps near Rafah, displacing some 4,000 refugees. Some of them were resettled in Canada Camp, others in the Rafah Brazil Quarter. Until 2000, the Israel Defense Forces(IDF) used a 20-40 meter wide buffer zone along the Gaza/Egypt border with a 2.5 to 3 meters high concrete wall topped with barbed wire.

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Wikipedia