[News] Gaza Strip: Israel announces completion of barrier around besieged enclave

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-gaza-barrier-completed-announced>
Gaza
Strip: Israel announces completion of barrier around besieged enclave
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Defence ministry says the barrier spans 65km and that 140,000 tonnes of
iron and steel were used in its construction

Gantz visits the fence separating Gaza from Israel on 7 December 2021,
during an event marking the end of construction of a barrier enclosing the
besieged Palestinian enclave (AFP)

Published date: 7 December 2021

Israel <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> announced on
Tuesday the completion of a massive barrier around the besieged Gaza Strip,
above and below ground, which took three and a half years to finish.

The project includes a sensor-equipped underground wall, a counter-measure
developed after Hamas used tunnels to blindside Israeli troops during their
2014 offensive against the enclave.

Israel went public with the project, which also includes an above-ground
fence, a naval barrier, radar systems and command and control rooms, in
2016.

Israel's defence ministry said the barrier, which includes hundreds of
cameras, radars and other sensors, spans 65km and that 140,000 tonnes of
iron and steel were used in its construction,

"The barrier, which is an innovative and technologically advanced project,
deprives Hamas of one of the capabilities it tried to develop," Israeli
Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, according to a defence ministry
statement.

The ministry said the project's "smart fence" is more than six metres high
and its maritime barrier includes means to detect infiltration by sea and a
remote-controlled weapons system.

The ministry did not disclose the depth of the underground wall.

Israel has maintained a crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007,
which critics say amounts to a collective punishment of the impoverished
enclave's two million residents.

Israel prevents the importing of materials and equipment into Gaza and has
imposed strict restrictions on exports, leading to a state of "paralysis"
in several sectors of Gaza's economy.

Egypt also upholds the siege, restricting movement in and out of Gaza on
its border.
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