Local council heads in Negev worried about infiltration from Egypt

The suicide bombing in Dimona Monday morning proved what many had already known: The residents of Negev desert towns are quite vulnerable to attacks by terrorists who infiltrate into Israel from Egypt.

Local council heads are calling for the building of a fence to delineate the border between Israel and Egypt in order to prevent infiltrations of terrorists such as those in the Dimona attack who are thought to have penetrated Israeli through this wide-open border.

Yaakov Turner, mayor of Beersheba, said that "there is no doubt that today, following what happened in Dimona, there is a lot of room for concern and Beersheba must be concerned and alert."

According to Turner, "We must have a separation fence between us and (the) Sinai (Peninsula). The events in Gaza and the collapse of the Philadelphi Corridor (the Gaza-Egypt border) are what enabled terrorists to get to Dimona."

Pini Badash, head of the Omer local council, was unsurprised by the fact that there was an attack, which there had been general warnings about for some time, but was surprised by the place where it occurred.

"The decision to carry out a suicide bombing in Dimona is surprising because of the location of the town. In the last two weeks we have increased the alertness of local security units and the police in wake of the warnings. But, it was simply a matter of time," he said.

Badash claims warnings from local council heads to government officials about the free passage of people over Israel's southern border fell on deaf ears.

"When the thousands of refugees from Darfur (Sudan) started arriving to Beersheba, we cautioned that the problem is not the refugees but rather the fact that the border is a highway – literally the trans-Israel highway."

Flora Shushan, head of the Mitzpe Ramon local council, believes that Negev-area towns need to be prepared for a new threatening reality. "We are all likely to be the next target and we must be prepared for this reality in which we are likely to be next in line in the open entrance corridor from Gaza to Israel."

Shushan said that the suicide bombing in Dimona had surprised her because, if the two bombers did in fact come from the Sinai Peninsula, they would have had to pass very close to Mitzpe Ramon.

"The writing was on the wall, and unfortunately now it is written with the blood of the victims," Shmuel Rifman, Ramat Hanegev local council head said.