LATEST ON ISRAEL’S GREAT SECURITY BARRIER!
September 9, 2005
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
The following article by Ariel O’Sullivan is consistent with the Israeli determination to finish the security barrier, believing it will give them a mindset of peace and safety on their side of it when it is finished around both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
BEGIN JERUSALEM POST ARTICLE
Army: New Gaza Fence is Formidable Barrier
By Arieh O’Sullivan, THE JERUSALEM POST
September 8, 2005
Remote control machine guns, robotic jeeps, a double fence, ditches and pillboxes along with digitally-linked commanders are all part of the IDF’s new 60-kilometer layered protection around the Gaza Strip.
Built at a cost of over NIS 1 billion over the past 15 months, it promises to be one of the most formidable barriers in the world.
Beyond the double fences, the IDF intends to keep a low profile, substituting a string of fortresses with highly mobile units and hidden patrols. Decoys may also be
used.
“What we want is to make sure that there is no routine,” said a senior officer.
“We don’t want to just throw troops on the fence but use our modern technology and be flexible.”
Israel considers the new line an international border according to the Oslo agreement. That agreement bars the Palestinians from building anything within 100 meters and the nearest non-public building must be at least 500 meters from the fence.
But since this was a unilateral withdrawal it is not clear whether these conditions will hold.
The fear in the IDF is that the Palestinians will build high-rise apartments on the border that can be used to snipe at Israelis.
The army has set up a large swath of land around the Strip for placing barbed wire coils, an electronic fence, and two patrol roads named Hoovers Alef and Hoovers Bet. There will also be a third patrol road a few hundred meters from the fence.
All the land was “purchased” from the border settlements by the Defense Ministry. The army said it would allow farmers to work some of the land if possible.
Besides the barriers, the army has relocated over 50 cement pillboxes from their location inside the Gaza Strip to the new border. Some of these will be equipped with 50-cali
ber machine guns with laser sights that can be fired from control rooms equipped with monitors and radar along the border.
The IDF expected the border with Egypt just south of the Gaza Strip to be the focus
of increased smuggling attempts so it was also continuing this barrier for about 10 km.
south of Kerem Shalom, senior IDF
officers said.
Without the Jewish settlements to protect, the Gaza Division will be reducing its battle order from 10 to just five battalions. These will be split into two brigades instead of three. The northern brigade will be temporarily housed near Nahal Oz and the southern brigade near Kerem Shalom. The new divisional headquarters will also be temporarily housed near Urim.
But the IDF is building a huge modern divisional headquarters on the grounds where the massive tent camp was erected near Re’im. Today that area – where over 10,000 troops were housed during the disengagement – has been cleared and tractors are at work. The IDF is also building five camps around the Gaza Strip to house the troops patrolling the coastal zone.
The army is also involved with the protection of the communities around the Gaza Strip. By the end of the year all of the border kibbutzim and moshavim near the fence will have the Red Dawn Kassam warning system. So far some NIS 80 million has been spent on security rooms in these settlements to give them passive protection from rockets and mortars.
The IDF is also taking into account that the Palestinians may try to dig tunnels under the fence, but would not elaborate on steps it was taking to thwart such action.
Senior officers said that they used examples from the US border with Mexico as well as experience along the Lebanon border in drawing up the plans to defend the border around the Gaza Strip.
END JERUSALEM POST ARTICLE