The military has completed a barrier of “iron, sensors, and concrete” to deter Hamas attacks by terror tunnels. At a cost of 3.5 Billion NIS ($1.1 Billion) the barrier runs the length of the Gaza Strip and into the sea to thwart an incursion into Israel.
Hamas has used the tunnels since 2004 when they first used them, “and in 2006 when they made an attack on Israeli soldiers killing three and capturing Gilad Shalit holding him for five years before a swap deal was made.”
The barrier “was anything but simple. We endured fifteen rounds of fighting; they shot at us; we worked under fire, but we almost never stopped working. Only in one case when they opened fire at us did we stop working and even then only for a few hours before we came back,” Brigadier General Eran Ofir said.
With the construction of the southern barrier attention will soon turn their attention to the northern barrier with Lebanon, “where an existing border fence has long been decried as insufficient.” The current defense budget has sufficient funds to create a similar barrier to “prevent or at least mitigate the threat of Hezbollah infiltrations.”
Until the day comes when peace reigns in Israel, the price of freedom and peace is eternal vigilance.
(Source: Judah Ari Gross; TOI)
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