Netanyahu tours Israel-Jordan border fence
Netanyahu tours Israel-Jordan border fencePolitical correspondents group

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu toured on Tuesday the route of the fence being built along Israel's eastern border with Jordan. 

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and Southern District commander Eyal Zamir also participated in the tour along the route of the anticipated 30-kilometer fence. 

So far five kilometers of the border fence have been erected. 

"The advantage of building here as well as along the border with Egypt is that there are no structures every kilometer or two next to the fence, which can be served as shafts and tunnels," Netanyahu said. 

"This is not the situation in Gaza," he explained. "It's also not the situation in Judea and Samaria, where there are erected buildings next to the separation line we are considering setting up. There, when building a fence, we need to take into account they're building tunnels underneath. Whoever said it is not important to territorialize in the modern era should go to Gaza."

The Prime Minister expressed his opinion that all of Israel should be surrounded by some sort of border fence. 

"At the end, in the State of Israel, as I see it, there will be a fence that spans it all. I'll be told, 'this is what you want, to protect the villa?' The answer is yes. Will we surround all of the State of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes."

"In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against predators," Netanyahu stressed. 

Outlining future steps on the issue, Netanyahu noted: "We are preparing a multi-year program to surround all of Israel with security fences in order to protect ourselves in the current Middle East. We're also preparing to fix holes in the security fence around Judea-Samaria."

"This thing costs many billions, and we're working on a multi-year plan of prioritization so it would be spread out over years in order to gradually build it, but to complete it to defend the State of Israel," Netanyahu added. 

The Prime Minister also visited the construction site of the new Ramon International Airport in Timna for a progress report.