… two if by sea.
Israel is planning a barrier stretching almost a kilometre into the Mediterranean to prevent seaborne Palestinian militants infiltrating its coastline after it pulls out of Gaza.
The barrier, which will be under water and above, and fitted with electronic sensors, will stretch out to sea in a line from Gaza’s northern border with Israel.
The plan, which triggered immediate protests from Palestinian leaders, is ostensibly aimed at making up for the reduction is surveillance posts for the Israeli military after it dismantles its installations guarding the Strip’s 21 settlements.
Military sources broadly confirmed a report in the Jerusalem Post which said that the barrier would stretch 950m into the sea. The newspaper said that the first 150m would consist of concrete pilings dug into the seabed, and the remaining 800m would be a submerged 1.8m (6ft) deep “floating fence”.
Officials suggested that the barrier would use a combination of sensors and underwater radar to alert the military to possible infiltration as well as physically helping to prevent it. Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza are already restricted by Israeli naval patrols on how far out to sea they can go.
Although Israel has provoked the condemnation of the Palestinians and the International Court of Justice for the 600km land security barrier because it cuts deep into the West Bank, this is the first time it has constructed a sea barrier. It has laid a line of buoys more than four kilometres out to sea to mark the border between Israel and Lebanon, from where the militant group Hezbollah has launched attacks.
As silly as the verbal attacks against the Israeli security fence have been, including rather poor comparisons to the Berlin Wall, I wonder what sort of complaints this will cause.