Egypt is not building a metal wall on its border with the Gaza Strip, but is rather installing sensors to detect smuggling tunnels, police told the daily al-Sharq al-Awsat Friday, DPA reported.
Several security officials contacted by the German Press Agency dpa refused to comment on an earlier report from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz that Egypt had begun work on a metal wall along the border that would extend deep underground to head off smuggling tunnels.
Witnesses on the Egyptian side of the border told dpa that they had seen military construction crews at work for months.
In al-Sharq al-Awsat's report published Friday, witnesses said they had seen work crews clearing a dirt track along the border and sinking metal rods. The witnesses said they had seen digging equipment, but allowed they did not know what the equipment's purpose was.
Suleiman Awad, chairman of the local council for the Egyptian side of the divided border town of Rafah, confirmed to al-Sharq al-Awsat that Egyptian authorities were uprooting fruit trees along the border as part of a plan to boost security, saying that growers were being compensated with 150 Egyptian pounds (27 dollars) for a peach tree and 250 Egyptian pounds (45 dollars) for an olive tree.
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