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Egypt will double to one kilometer (0.62 mile) the depth of a security buffer zone it is clearing on its border with the Gaza Strip after some of the worst anti-state violence since President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Egypt declared a state of emergency in the border area after at least 33 security personnel were killed last month in two <\/span> Source: Alarabiya<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egypt will double to one kilometer (0.62 mile) the depth of a security buffer zone it is clearing on its border with the Gaza Strip after some of the worst anti-state violence since President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, a remote but strategic region bordering Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.<\/span>
It also accelerated plans to create a 500-metre deep buffer strip along the border by clearing houses and trees and <\/span>
destroying subterranean tunnels it says are used to smuggle arms from Gaza to militants in Sinai.<\/span>
“A decision was taken to increase the buffer zone along the border in Rafah to one kilometer. The decision … came after <\/span>
the discovery of underground tunnels with a total length of 800 to 1,000 meters,” the state MENA news agency said.<\/span>
Residents of Sinai, who complain they have long been neglected by the state, say they rely on smuggling trade through <\/span>
the tunnels for their living and the creation of the buffer zone has stoked resentment. Egyptian authorities see them as a threat and regularly destroy them.<\/span>
Militant violence in Sinai has surged since the army ousted Mursi, a Brotherhood official in July 2013. Egypt has launched a <\/span>
crackdown on the group, jailing thousands of its members and labeling it a terrorist organization.<\/span>
The Brotherhood says it is peaceful and condemned last month’s attacks.<\/span>
But Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a militant group that has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, has stepped up attacks on police <\/span>
and soldiers in Sinai and released a video this month in which it purported to claim that it was behind the Oct. 24 attack. <\/span><\/p>\n