2 yıl önce

Israel completes 'iron wall' barrier around besieged Gaza

The 65-kilometre barrier includes radar systems, maritime sensors and a network of underground sensors to detect tunnels.

AFP

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2007.

Israel has completed the construction of a barrier around the besieged Gaza, described as an "iron wall" equipped with underground sensors, radars and cameras.

The 65-kilometre (40-mile) "barrier" was completed after three and half years of construction, an Israeli defence ministry statement announced on Tuesday.

It includes an "underground barrier with sensors", a six metre-high smart fence, radars, cameras and a maritime monitoring system.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier “prevents Hamas from one of their capabilities and places an iron wall between it and the residents of the south."

Israel developed the counter-measure after Hamas used tunnels to blindside Israeli troops during the 2014 Israeli invasion of Gaza, which killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, wounding more than 10,000.

Dire humanitarian conditions

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2007, tightly restricting the flow of goods and people in and out of the territory.

During the most recent Israeli aggression on the blockaded strip in May, over 240 people were killed in Gaza, while the death toll in Israel reached 12 in the 11 days of fighting.

Israel says its Gaza blockade is necessary to guard against threats from Hamas resistance group, but critics blame it for dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Israel has also built a security barrier along part of its land that connects to the West Bank, a Palestinian territory it has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.