Border barriersIsrael starts building new barrier along Gaza Strip border

Israel on Sunday it had started to build a new barrier along the country’s border with the Gaza Strip in order to prevent terrorists from entering Israeli territory. The barrier will be 65 kilometers long and six meters high.

The Defense Ministry said that the above-ground barrier would work in conjunction with an underground wall, currently under construction, which aims to neutralize the possibility of cross-border tunnels built by Hamas militants.

“The barrier will prevent terrorists from Gaza from penetrating into our territory on the ground,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

The Defense Ministry said the barrier will be similar to the one that runs along the border with Egypt, but that it would have “significant improvements” and will be made up of some 20,000 tons of galvanized steel.

Al Jazeera reports that the fence’s construction comes after months of mass protests, some of them violent, by Palestinians in Gaza along the border. They want to return to the homes their families fled in the1948-49 war, which Israel calls War of Independence and the Palestinians call Naqba (“catastrophe” in Arabic).

Since 30 March 2018, when the border demonstrations began just ahead of the May 1948 celebrations in Israel of the country’s 70^th year anniversary, at least 246 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire — the majority during border protests, but also by tank fire and airstrikes against Hamas positions.

In the same period, two Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Netanyahu warned that “if the quiet is not maintained in Gaza, we will make the decisions even in the elections period and will not hesitate to act.”