The Cabinet on Sunday approved the construction of two sections of fence at the Egyptian border aimed at preventing terrorist infiltration and a flood of illegal African immigrants. The cost of the 155-mile long barriers will be approximately $1.5 billion.
The fences will stretch from the southern tip of Eilat and west from near the border city of Rafiah. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers that Israel will continue to accept refugees from Darfur but will not allow the continued infiltration of thousands of illegal Sudanese.
Their presence at the Dead Sea hotel area and in the Negev city of Arad has forced many Israelis out of work and has added to the growing Bedouin population boom that threatens to create a non-Jewish majority in southern Israel.
The fence also would keep out terrorists as well as drug smugglers and human slave traders. Areas not closed with a physical fence will be patrolled with technological devices.