ISRAELI PRIME minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered the construction of a barrier along the border with Egypt with the dual purpose of keeping out African migrants and militant infiltrators.
Thousands of African migrants have tried to enter Israel via the Egyptian Sinai over recent years. Israeli police estimate that 100-200 migrants try to cross the border each week.
Egyptian guards have shot and killed at least 17 people approaching the border since May.
Israel already has security fences along its northern border with Lebanon and its eastern border with Jordan. The prime minister said that eventually the entire country will be surrounded by a fence.
The policy of turning back desperate foreigners is particularly sensitive in Israel, a country that opened its borders to Jewish refugees from postwar Europe and Jews who fled from Arab and Muslim states in the region.
Mr Netanyahu promised that Israel will remain open to refugees from conflict zones, but added, “we cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens”. There have also been a number of attempts by Palestinian militants and Bedouin smugglers to come into Israel via Egypt, south of Gaza.
The new security barrier will be constructed in two sections: south from the Gaza Strip and north from the Red Sea resort of Eilat. The section in the middle will be protected by advanced surveillance equipment, including radar.
Mr Netanyahu said the barrier, which will take two years to construct, will “ensure the Jewish and democratic nature of the state of Israel”.
Egyptian authorities described the decision as an “internal Israeli matter” and said they would not object as long as the barrier was constructed on the Israeli side of the border.
Israel has also built a barrier along its border with the West Bank, much of it on confiscated Palestinian land.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak yesterday warned Hamas rulers in Gaza to bring a halt to rocket fire by militant groups. He said the escalation in recent weeks resulted from Hamas’s failure to enforce its will on renegade groups. “The deterrence achieved in the Gaza war remains, but I recommend that Hamas in Gaza consider their moves and not shed crocodile tears if they force us to act,” he said.