Egypt accused of threatening group that reported on enclosure near Gaza

Human rights groups Monday accused Egypt of a "smear campaign and threats" against an activist group that reported the construction of a walled enclosure in the Sinai bordering the Gaza Strip.

The group had said in mid-February that the enclosure, visible on satellite images, is meant to receive refugees in case of "a mass exodus" from Gaza which Israel has bombed since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. 

Since then, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) has been targeted by "government and pro-government figures and entities,"  18 rights groups charged in a joint statement.

Among the signatories were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

They said the group's director, Ahmed Salem, had been targeted on social media, in newspapers and on television.

He had been "linked to terrorist groups and the Israeli Mossad among other allegations presented without evidence," they said. 

Salem, who lives in Britain with his wife and children, had received "threats that he 'would be brought back to Egypt' if he did not drop his work." 

The SFHR released its report on Feb. 14 on what it described as a "closed, high security" zone to potentially receive Palestinian refugees. 

Cairo has officially denied the claims, but the group reported that two local developers had told it they had obtained contracts to build a closed area "surrounded by seven-meter-high walls."

AFP reviewed satellite pictures taken on Thursday of the area in northern Sinai, showing construction of a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border, an area off-limits to journalists. 

A comparison of satellite photos taken on Feb. 10 and 15 shows land having been graded. 

Human rights groups regularly accuse Egypt of attacking activists and journalists, sometimes even in exile, including by going after their families remaining in the country. 

Mary Lawlor, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, on Thursday urged "Egyptian authorities to ensure the safety of Ahmed Salem and his family."

The 18 rights groups demanded that Egypt "immediately allow independent journalists and independent civil society to work freely in Sinai."

They said the media should be able to "report on the grievances of its residents following a decade of military operations hidden from public scrutiny, as well as any impact of cross-border developments on the ongoing armed conflict in Gaza."