Its principles Egypt they build huge campsurrounded by high concrete wallsin the Sinai desert, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday Thursday.

Cairo is worried about a possible mass exodus from the Gaza Strip when Israel’s army launches a ground offensive in Rafah, the report explains.

The newspaper, citing Egyptian officials and experts, said around 100,000 people could be accommodated in tents in the camp, which is not far from the border with the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, Egyptian authorities have been stepping up security measures, deploying troops, armored personnel carriers and erecting or reinforcing fences to prevent a massive influx of refugees from the Palestinian enclave.

The camp is being built as a precaution, in case large numbers of Gazans cross the border, according to the WSJ text.

The governor in North Sinai province has denied the camp is being built for Palestinians, saying it is intended for Egyptians displaced by recent operations by the Egyptian armed forces against Islamic State jihadists.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his army days ago to prepare to launch an attack on Rafah, according to him the “last stronghold” of Hamas.

Some 1.3 million Palestinians, in other words more than half the population of the Gaza Strip, have flocked to the city, on the closed border with Egypt, where they went after fleeing their homes in other areas of the enclave, to escape from the war that has been raging for more than four months.

According to the publication, Egypt is seeking to limit the number of refugees as much as possible, to accept no more than 50,000 to 60,000.

Egypt’s government has gone so far as to threaten Israel with ending the bilateral peace agreement (1979) if there is a massive influx of refugees from the Gaza Strip, according to the WSJ.

The report says that an Israeli army officer said that the scenario of driving the civilian population north, out of the war zone but into the enclave, is being considered.