Egypt to complete construction of New Rafah City
New Rafah City is becoming a reality in northern Sinai, giving displaced Rafah residents hope for a new and secure life and Egypt a chance to better fight the Islamic State in the border area with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
CAIRO — Egypt is close to completing the construction of New Rafah City in northern Sinai, nearly 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The new city promises to alter the living conditions of its residents and help Egypt tighten its control over the border area with Gaza.
Covering almost 535 acres of land, the new city will contain around 10,000 apartments that will be given to the residents of Rafah, the Egyptian city closest to Gaza, who had been forced to leave their homes in recent years because of violence from the local branch of the Islamic State (IS).
Together with Arish, another major city in northern Sinai, Rafah was a stronghold of IS, originally a homegrown group by a different name that then swore allegiance to IS in late 2014.
While some Rafah residents left the city voluntarily, others were forced out of the city by Egyptian authorities in 2013 in a bid to clear the way for counterterrorism operations and to tighten control over the area, which also is close to Israel.
