Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered various government agencies to begin planning a border fence for Israel's south. The fence will aim to prevent infiltration.

Police have warned that thousands of illegal entrants infiltrate southern Israel every month, the overwhelming majority of them job-seekers from northern Africa, and that hundreds of thousands of people living in Egypt are interested in entering Israel illegally. In addition, drug smugglers often take advantage of Israel's porous southern border to bring their wares into the country.