Residents of Nitzana, located adjacent to the Sinai Desert border between Israel and Egypt, are demanding that the IDF set up an electronic fence to protect the town from terrorist infiltration from Egypt.
A sharp increase in the infiltration and smuggling of terrorists, weapons, drugs, foreign workers, and prostitutes along the border with Egypt has frightened the area’s residents. Israeli towns and villages in the area, such as Kadesh Barnea. Kmehin, and Nitzanei Sinai, with an aggregate population of only 100 families, are being put on alert "several times a month,” according to resident Yankele Moskowitz.
The border with Egypt, extending from Eilat in the south to the southern tip of Gaza, is totally unfenced and almost entirely unguarded. Only a small stretch of the border, which was finalized after Israel's withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, is fenced off. That stretch, near Rafiach, is an extensively patrolled corridor separating Egypt from PLO-controlled Gaza, and has been the scene of intense fighting since the start of the Oslo War over 27 months ago.
"We are very worried by what is going on along the border with Egypt," said Moshe Karadi, head of Israel Police’s southern region. Ha’aretz quoted Karadi as saying, "There has been an increase in the amount of large-scale smuggling of drugs and foreign workers in what is officially described as a peaceful border. The problem is that, by its very definition, the border is wide open."
Shmulik Rifman, head of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council, said, "We need to adapt ourselves to the new reality on the border with Egypt" meaning that an electronic fence is required. Rifman said that a proposal to enclose the entire Nitzana area with an electronic fence is already "on the Defense Minister's desk."
A sharp increase in the infiltration and smuggling of terrorists, weapons, drugs, foreign workers, and prostitutes along the border with Egypt has frightened the area’s residents. Israeli towns and villages in the area, such as Kadesh Barnea. Kmehin, and Nitzanei Sinai, with an aggregate population of only 100 families, are being put on alert "several times a month,” according to resident Yankele Moskowitz.
The border with Egypt, extending from Eilat in the south to the southern tip of Gaza, is totally unfenced and almost entirely unguarded. Only a small stretch of the border, which was finalized after Israel's withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, is fenced off. That stretch, near Rafiach, is an extensively patrolled corridor separating Egypt from PLO-controlled Gaza, and has been the scene of intense fighting since the start of the Oslo War over 27 months ago.
"We are very worried by what is going on along the border with Egypt," said Moshe Karadi, head of Israel Police’s southern region. Ha’aretz quoted Karadi as saying, "There has been an increase in the amount of large-scale smuggling of drugs and foreign workers in what is officially described as a peaceful border. The problem is that, by its very definition, the border is wide open."
Shmulik Rifman, head of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council, said, "We need to adapt ourselves to the new reality on the border with Egypt" meaning that an electronic fence is required. Rifman said that a proposal to enclose the entire Nitzana area with an electronic fence is already "on the Defense Minister's desk."