CAIRO, Nov 2 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt's ministry of endowments will dismiss any mosque Imam in North Sinai who covers up for the existence of underground tunnels beneath the mosque, the ministry announced on Sunday.

In a statement published by the state-run news agency MENA, the ministry said it would also sack any employee who discloses information regarding the storage of weapons inside the mosque or any other workplace. 

"The decision also applies to all those who use any mosque, or platform, to … incite murder or vandalism or those who distribute flyers inside the mosque which incite such behaviour," the ministry reportedly said.

Security forces began evacuating the area bordering Sinai's Rafah on Tuesday evening, as one of the steps taken in response to a militant attack on security personnel in the Peninsula last week which left over 33 killed.

Security forces have been targeting tunnels dug up in the Sinai to connect it with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Egyptian authorities say the tunnels are used to smuggle arms to militants in the Peninsula. 

Egypt's cabinet issued on Wednesday a decision to clear 500 metres of the border area with Gaza of civilians, vowing to provide compensation for those evicted. 

The decision allows the forcible seizure of the property of those who refuse to comply. It also excludes those who shelter tunnels under their houses from entitlement to compensation.

Shawky Allam, Egypt's Grand Mufti told MENA on Sunday that "it is religiously legitimate to transfer Sinai residents to safe areas for the purpose of confronting terrorism."

Allam added that religiously speaking, the authorities are obliged to provide evacuated citizens with alternative housing which matches or exceeds the quality of their initial places of residence. The mufti also said those evicted should receive financial compensation. 

According to a surveillance of the area in question, there are 802 houses sheltering 1156 families which need to be evicted. They include 112 houses which have been affected by the tunnel-destruction operations the armed forces are conducting and 87 more which have already been removed for sheltering illegal tunnels.

North Sinai's Governor Abdel Fattah Harhour told MENA on Thursday night that 37 families who evacuated their houses have received financial compensation. He added that the government has allocated 500 million Egyptian pounds for financial compensation for those whose houses have been evicted.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in parts of the Sinai Peninsula in response to last week's deadly attacks. 

Gaza's ruling body Hamas criticised the buffer zone in a statement last Monday, saying it would reinforce the siege imposed on the strip since 2007. 

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013, which followed mass protests against his rule.