Defense Ministry completes construction of sensor fences around southern communities

Smart fence will form a physical obstacle in case of an attempted infiltration, and will send a warning to a regional council control room and to the IDF, every time the fence detects contact.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: OCTOBER 7, 2015 02:15
Defense Ministry completes construction of sensor fences around southern communities (photo credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY)
Defense Ministry completes construction of sensor fences around southern communities
(photo credit: DEFENSE MINISTRY)
The Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday the completion of a project to surround 12 communities near the Gazan border with sensor- based electronic security fences. Since the truce went into effect in August 2014, every Gazan infiltrator has been caught and arrested.
The announcement comes as Hamas continues to build tunnels in Gaza to target the South with cross-border raids in any future conflict.
The ministry’s Acquisitions Administration reported that the 30-million shekel project included the construction of tens of kilometers of electronic fences with advanced technology, and includes maintenance of the fences for the next three years.
The villages and kibbutz communities of Sufa, Holot, Nir Yitzhak, Nirim, Nir Oz, Ein Hashlosha, Kissufim, Alumim, Sa’ad Kfar Aza, Miflasim, and Nir Am all received new protective fences.
Work to build fences around Carmiya and Yad Mordechai will be complete in the coming months, the Defense Ministry said.
“During Operation Protective Edge, the Home Front Command and Defense Ministry decided to set up a smart fence around Gaza border communities. The smart fence will form a physical obstacle if there is an attempted infiltration into a community. It will send a warning to a regional council control room and to the IDF every time the fence detects contact,” the ministry said in a statement.
Yitzhak Levi, deputy head of the Land Acquisitions Administration at the Defense Ministry, said the fences form “one component in a basket of solutions that the defense establishment has formulated to strengthen the communities after the operation.”
The IDF has deployed a new hi-tech underground tunnel detection system in the South, while the army’s Combat Intelligence Collection units look not only at enemy activities in Gaza, but also back into Israel, to ensure that they can detect and respond to cross-border infiltrations quickly.
They rely on high-rise radar masts and day and night electro- optical sensors. These masts dot the entire border region.
Large numbers of mobile field intelligence units also quietly move around the region; some of them look back into Israel, scanning for infiltrators.
The electronic border fence with Gaza is undergoing additional upgrade changes.