A family residing on Israel's southern border with Egypt received hard proof Thursday that the boundary is not properly sealed, when eight Sudanese citizens crossed the border and arrived at their house.
While this incident ended without harm, it provided a good indication of how easy it would be for less peaceful elements to reach the peripheral communities.
A five year-old girl from the Azuz community in the southern Negev region spotted the eight Sudanese nationals outside her home, and called her father to see. It turned out the eight men were lost and very thirsty.
"I asked where they were from," the girl's father Avi told Ynet. "They said they were from Sudan and spoke a little English and Arabic. They asked me how they can get to the 'big city,' meaning Beer Sheva."
"I explained that Beer Sheva is a hundred kilometers (about 60 miles) away, and that it's desert all the way there," he said.
His wife Tamar added that the men did not appear to be dangerous, but were rather very polite and depressed. She offered them food and water.
"From what they said we managed to understand that they want to work, and that they were accompanied by a Bedouin who deserted them along the way. They were dehydrated and came to us looking for water," she said.
When the men realized it would be impossible to reach Beer Sheva, Tamar said they asked her husband to call the police to come and pick them up.
Avi called a Border Guard unit, which took the Sudanese men in for questioning.
An imminent threat of terror
The community of Azuz is located only 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Egyptian border. Both Avi and Tamar are not the least bit surprised that the men were able to cross from Egypt into Israel so easily.
"There is no fence separating between Israel and Egypt, only a road. The infiltrators could have easily been terrorists carrying Kalachnikovs," Avi said.
Border Guard officials said an investigation revealed that the men spent about two months in Egypt, and then decided to travel to Israel. There is no information on whether they were assisted along the way.
Given that Israel has no extradition agreement with Sudan, the men will remain in custody and transferred to a military prison until the government decides on their case.
The border is breached
Southern Regional Council heads have demanded in the past that the defense establishment erect a fence along the borderline from the community of Kerem Shalom south.
In a letter to the prime minister and the defense minister, Head of the Ramat Negev Regional Council Shmulik Rifman, and Head of the Eshkol Regional Council Uri Na'amati wrote that the withdrawal from Gaza has brought about a significant increase in the smuggling of arms and the infiltration of hostile elements through the Egyptian border.
The border, which is breached for entrance by criminals who smuggle narcotics and women for prostitution, the heads of the councils warned, will soon appeal to terrorists who will be easily able to infiltrate the communities in the region.
This reality, they stated, makes the establishment of a fence in the immediate future necessary.