Residents of Southern Israel Welcome Construction of New, Technologically-Advanced Barrier on Gaza Border

Barney Breen-Portnoy

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The Israel-Gaza Strip border. Photo: Mary Madigan via Wikimedia Commons.

Israelis who live near the Gaza Strip are welcoming the construction of a new technologically-advanced border wall, the Hebrew news site Ynet reported on Thursday.

The barrier — which will include sensors to detect underground activities — will be completed within two years.

During its last war with Israel in the summer of 2014, the Gaza-ruling Hamas terrorist group used an extensive cross-border tunnel network to attack IDF troops.

On Wednesday, an IDF official warned Hamas to not try to thwart the wall project, saying, according to the Times of Israel, “Israel will defend this barrier in every way possible. This barrier will be built. Period. At any price.”

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi told Ynet that the wall would “significantly increase the sense of security” of border area residents.

Alon Shuster — the head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council — expressed a similar sentiment and added that the building of the barrier would bolster an ongoing population boom the Gaza border area has been experiencing during the relative quiet of the past three years since Operation Protective Edge ended.

Yifat Ben Shushan, who lives in Netiv HaAsara, said, “I was pleased to learn the project is advancing steadily and will indeed provide us with protection against the most worrying threat — the tunnels. This certainly improves my sense of security as both a resident and a mother of children.”

However, Ben Shushan pointed out, the barrier was only an “operational solution.”

In Gaza, she said, “there are close to two million people living under Hamas rule and in a difficult humanitarian situation.”

“The problem with Gaza will continue after the barrier is built,” she cautioned.

Meanwhile, the IDF on Thursday published several graphics showing how Hamas hides tunnel entrances in civilian areas in Gaza.

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