Egypt is building a kilometer-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with Gaza, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies show.
The images, taken over the past five days, show that a significant section of Egyptian territory between a road and the Gaza border has been leveled.
When the buffer zone, which extends from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea, is completed, it will encompass the border complex between Egypt and Rafah.
At the actual border, several cranes were seen placing sections of wall.
Additional satellite images reviewed by CNN show that excavators arrived at the site on February 3 and that initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6.
There has been a significant increase in excavations in the last five days.
Videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show the construction of the border wall, which they said would be 5 meters (16 feet) high.
The organization, which describes itself as a non-governmental human rights group, said two local contractors told them the border wall was commissioned by the Egyptian military. CNN has contacted the Egyptian government for comment.
The construction comes amid fears that the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza will worsen, leading to thousands of deaths and a mass exodus of Palestinians across the border into Egypt.
All eyes are on Rafah, located along the new buffer zone, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering in a huge tent city.
Despite international pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that Israeli forces will enter Rafah. Many fear that military action in the refugee tent city could spark an exodus, but also lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians.
Netanyahu continues to criticize Egypt for not closing the Philadelphia Corridor, the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza and the strip's only non-Israeli-controlled border. Netanyahu has said Israel will not consider the war over until it is over.
