The Walls Come Down: How Cairo is quietly building the "Sinai Option"

Reports indicate that the Netanyahu government, emboldened by the Trump administration, is preparing to unilaterally facilitate the exit of Gazans. Egypt is preparing for the overflow. Opinion.

For over two years, the "Sinai Option"-the mass displacement of Gazans into Egyptian territory-has been the third rail of Middle Eastern diplomacy. Egyptian officials, from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi down to the lowest border guard, have called it a "red line" that would trigger war. They have termed it the "liquidation of the Palestinian cause."

On December 25, 2025 , the Egyptian state finalized the publication of Presidential Decree No. 736 of 2025 in the Official Gazette (Issue No. 52 bis (c)). It is a bureaucratic document with explosive geopolitical implications. Under the innocuous guise of "national development," Cairo has officially allocated 6,227,658 square meters (approximately 1,482 acres) of state-owned land in North Sinai to the General Authority for Land and Dry Ports.

The stated purpose is the establishment of "logistics zones" to facilitate trade. But a closer look at the map reveals that Egypt is not building trade hubs; it is building the infrastructure for a population it can no longer keep out. The decree targets three specific, strategically situated locations: Rafah, El Hassana, and the Baghdad area in North Sinai. The choice of these sites is not economic; it is tactical.

Rafah serves as the intake valve-the immediate spillover zone for the millions of Palestinian Arabs currently pressed against the border fence. However, it is the other two locations-El Hassana and Baghdad-that betray the regime's true intent. Located deep in the heart of Central Sinai, far from the populated Nile Delta and the sensitive Suez Canal, these areas serve as a secondary layer of defense.

By establishing massive "logistics zones" here, the Egyptian military is creating a defense-in-depth strategy for refugee management. The plan appears to be to process refugees at the border and then rapidly transport them to these isolated, high-security zones, effectively quarantining the Gazan population in the desert before they can mingle with the Egyptian populace or link up with domestic opposition in Cairo. (Read More)