Two years after construction began, Israel has finished the bulk of the work on a fence along its border with Egypt. Closing off the 140-mile-long stretch of desert border will prevent the “unfettered flow of illegal infiltrators, the smuggling of drugs and weapons,” said a statement from the Defense Ministry, which oversaw the $400-million engineering project.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the completion of the main section, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu praised the effort to curb the illegal entry of migrants from Africa, reduced from more than 2,000 a month in January 2012 to fewer than 40 in December.
Stopping the migrants is one aim of the fence, which stands about 15 to 20 feet high and includes multiple layers of barbed wire, communications equipment, a patrol road and asphalt track. It is similar to portions of the barrier that seals off the occupied West Bank from Israel, although that fence includes sections of concrete wall. Early last year, Netanyahu said Israel would build a similar fence along the desert border with Jordan.
The government says all African migrants entering Israel illegally in recent months have been placed in detention facilities before reaching Israeli cities, where an estimated 60,000 migrants and asylum seekers already live.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
