Israel to build huge beach barrier to stop Gaza attacks
ISRAEL has begun work on a huge fortified breakwater in the Mediterranean to prevent infiltration from the Gaza Strip.
The “new and impenetrable” barrier being built off the Zikim beach, a few miles north of Gaza, is in effect a fortified breakwater topped with barbed wire, Israel’s defence ministry said.
The ministry said it was the first of its kind in the world and was expected to be ready by the end of this year.
“This is a unique obstacle that will effectively prevent the possibility of penetrating Israel by sea,” Avigdor Lieberman, the defence minister, said.
“This is another blow to Hamas, which will lose yet another strategic ability in which it invested vast amounts of money,” he added, in reference to the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.
The idea of the breakwater is to stop Hamas using boats to land in Israeli territory. In 2014, Israeli forces killed four Hamas militants who had managed to infiltrate by sea.
Israel is meanwhile continuing the revamp of its land border fence with the besieged enclave – this will include a huge, new underground barrier intended to neutralise the tunnel threat.
Meanwhile, as construction of the breakwater began, Gaza activists announced plans to breach the Israeli naval blockade of the territory, which has prevented any vessel travelling more than six nautical miles from the coast since 2007.
Few details were given, but organisers said the boat would depart tomorrow at 8am GMT carrying patients needing medical care, students and job-seeking university graduates. Its intended destination was not announced.
The boat also brings “dreams of our people and their aspirations for freedom”,
‘This is a unique obstacle that will effectively prevent the possibility of penetrating Israel by sea’
Salah Abdul-ati, the organiser, said at Gaza City’s port.
Organisers said it would be the first attempt to breach the naval blockade from the Gaza Strip side.
The plan comes ahead of the eighth anniversary on Thursday of a deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-registered ship that was part of a six vessel flotilla that attempted to run the blockade.
At least 119 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip since mass protests and clashes broke out on March 30, according to the Gaza health ministry.