Egyptian buffer zone plan not new

Israeli daily Haaretz says an Egyptian plan to establish a bufffer zone in Sinai along the Gaza border was not new, adding Israel had offered the ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to create the zone in 2004.

The daily said the goal of the plan at the time was to separate the Palestinian Rafah from the Egyptian Rafah and to prevent the Palestinians from digging tunnels.

Egyptian authorities on Tuesday ordered residents living along the country's eastern border with the Gaza Strip to evacuate so they can demolish their homes and set up the buffer zone.

The measure comes four days after unknown gunmen attacked an army post, killing at least 31 soldiers in the restive area in the northeastern corner of the Sinai Peninsula. After the attack, Egypt declared a state of emergency and dawn-to-dusk curfew there. Authorities also indefinitely closed the Gaza crossing, the only non-Israeli passage for the crowded strip with the world.

The buffer zone, which will include water-filled trenches, will be 500 meters (yards) wide and extended along the 13 kilometer (9 mile) border.