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Egyptian construction threatens to obliterate Rafah's beaches

Aerial photos show that Rafah's beaches have lost 12 meters in the last four years, the result of marine construction on the Egyptian side.

Palestinian fishermen ride a boat as they fish in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near Egypt's territorial water September 15, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY) - RTX13LWD
Palestinian fishermen fish from a boat in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near Egypt's territorial waters, Sept. 15, 2013. — REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Rafah’s municipality used aerial photos of the city’s coast from Google Earth to show the erosion of more than 12 meters (39 feet) of its coast as of 2014, the result of Egypt's construction of a groin on the Egyptian side of Rafah in 2010.

The director of the Health and Environment Department for Rafah municipality, Usama Abu Nokira, told Al-Monitor, “A groin is a curved marine structure on the shoreline or a deep coastal outlet. It may be natural or artificial and protects a port or a shoreline from erosion. However, it has several negative consequences, as it increases beach erosion [elsewhere] and causes water advances toward residential areas.”

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