The Egyptian army began expanding its operations Oct. 4 to demolish the homes of civilians in the Egyptian city of Rafah as part of the third stage of building a border buffer zone with the Gaza Strip.
Since October 2014, the Egyptian army has worked on establishing a buffer zone along the border line with Gaza as part of the security plan to destroy tunnels used for smuggling between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian government accuses Hamas of using the tunnels to carry out terrorist operations inside Egypt.