Egypt demolishes homes on Gaza border

Egyptian residents near the border with Gaza have been given 48 hours to leave, as authorities begin demolishing homes.

Egyptian security forces secure houses which were destroyed by the Egyptian army on the Egyptian side of the border town of Rafah (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

Egyptian authorities have begun creating a "buffer" zone to prevent weapons being smuggled into the increasingly lawless Sinai region in Egypt, from the Palestinian Territory.

The plan includes the demolition of up to 800 homes and follows a wave of deadly attacks in the Sinai region, including suicide bombing last week, which killed 30 soldiers.

Egyptian media reports have accused Gaza's Hamas administration of aiding militants in Sinai, which Hamas denies.

Speaking in the days after the attack, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi accused unidentified "external forces" of being involved.

Egyptian officials want to create a 500 metre wide buffer along about 10 kilometres of its border with Gaza.

The governor of Sinai says residents will be compensated for their lost homes.

In addition to the buffer zone, Egypt has indefinitely closed the Rafah crossing, the only non-Israeli passage for Gazans.

In Gaza, Abdel Kareem Abu Ouf says he's puzzled by the move because Egyptians and Palestinians have always had good relations.

"A buffer zone is just a plot against the Palestinian people. We are brothers with the Egyptians and we do not interfere in their border," he said.

"We hear everyday explosions near the border," another resident, Jamal Salah said.

"They explode buildings, they do not let anyone there. They explode the area and evict the people from their homes."

Egyptian security forces have previously destroyed about 200 homes on the border after discovering entrances inside to smuggling tunnels leading into the Gaza Strip.

Residents of Sinai, which receives little support from the Egyptian government, say they use the tunnels to smuggle goods into Gaza, and rely on the smuggling business for their livelihoods.

But Egyptian security forces see them as a threat to security and regularly destroy them.

The Egyptian government has ramped up security operations in the Sinai region, after a surge of violence, sparked by the downfall of President Mohamed Morsi, in July.

Egypt's army accuses Hamas militants of  staging a series of joint attacks with hardline Islamists in North Sinai

The Sinai militants expanded into a security vacuum that emerged after Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011.