EL-ARISH, Egypt — With dynamite and bulldozers, Egypt’s army demolished dozens of homes along its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after the military ordered residents out to make way for a planned buffer zone meant to stop militants and smugglers.

The plan to clear 10,000 residents from some 800 houses over just several days has angered the area’s already disgruntled population, which has long held grievances with Cairo.

“To throw 10,000 people into the street in a second, this is the biggest threat to national security,” said Ayman Mohsen, who said the army told residents to leave on Tuesday within 48 hours, and that houses would be blown up even if anyone remained inside.

Over the past decade, the northern region of the Sinai Peninsula has become a hub for Islamic extremists, although insurgency has spiked since last year’s military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. It has also spread to other parts of Egypt, with militants targeting police in Cairo and the Nile Delta.

The move to set up the planned 8-mile buffer zone, which will be 500 yards wide, comes after militants attacked an army checkpoint near Sheikh Zuweyid town last week, killing 31 soldiers. No group claimed responsibility.

After the attack, Egypt declared a three-month state of emergency and dawn-to-dusk curfew there and indefinitely closed the Gaza crossing, the only non-Israeli passage for the crowded strip with the world.

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