On the anniversary of the liberation of the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian media highlighted what they said were “crimes committed by the Israeli army” during its occupation of Sinai, particularly in the Egyptian city of Rafah.
A report by the Egyptian newspaper “Al-Shorouk” revealed a series of bitter events that took place in the city of Rafah during the period of the Israeli occupation, between the war of setback, the war of liberation, displacement, and settlement dreams, leading to the joy of liberation and the exit of settlers.
The report pointed to Israeli plans to build a major settlement in Sinai with the aim of isolating the Gaza Strip from Egypt and explained that Israeli leader Ariel Sharon managed to displace about 5,000 Bedouins from the Rumailat tribes in 1972 in favor of building the Yamit settlement.
A few months after the displacement of the Bedouins, not a single house was built, and with the start of the October 1973 war, the countdown began to the end of the Israeli presence in Sinai.
In 1975, Israel laid the foundations for the settlement of Yamit, which expanded to become home to thousands of settlers with extremist ideas, as well as the poor who exploit their residency permits.
According to the book The Iron Wall between Israel and the Arabs, Sharon placed obstacles to the handover of Rafah, including demanding the Egyptian government $ 80 million for the price of the houses built on Yamet, which the Egyptian government did not respond to, so that the demolition of the settlement is the only option in the hands of the Israelis.
In 1982, the settlement of Yamit was evacuated after resistance from some settlers, and all the houses were demolished and reduced to rubble, leaving only the remains of a synagogue in its ruins, making Rafah return to Egypt as it was.
Egypt joins the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the “International Court of Justice”