Egypt is building a miles-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with Gaza, new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows.
The images, taken in the last five days, show a significant section of Egyptian territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed.
When the buffer zone — which stretches from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — is completed, it will engulf the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex.
At the actual border, multiple cranes were seen laying sections of wall.
Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that bulldozers arrived on site on February 3, and that the initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6.
There has been a significant uptick in excavation in the last five days.
Videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show construction of the border wall, which they said would be 5 meters (16 feet) high.
The, which describes itself as a non-governmental human rights group, said two local contractors told them the border wall was commissioned by the Egyptian armed forces. CNN has reached out to the Egyptian government for comment.
The construction comes as fears that the already horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza will worsen, causing thousands of deaths and a mass exodus of Palestinians over Egypt's border.
All eyes are on Rafah, situated along the new buffer zone, where over a million Palestinian refugees are taking shelter in a massive tent city.
Despite international pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that the Israeli forces will enter Rafah. Many fear that military action in the refugee tent city could spark an exodus, but also resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.
Netanyahu continues to rail against Egypt for not closing the Philadelphi Corridor — the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza and the strip's only non-Israeli controlled border. Netanyahu has said that Israel would not consider the war over until it was closed.
