No budget for 'anti-ISIS' border fence
Current budget only accounts for 30 kilometers of 235 kilometer-long barrier from Eilat to the future Timna airport; fence meant to deal with threat posed by Islamic State and Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
In light of the threat posed by Islamic State and the concern that thousands of Syrian and Iraqi refugees will try to penetrate into Israel, Israel will in the coming days start building a security fence along the border with Jordan.
"To the extent that it is possible we will encompass Israel's borders with a security fence and barriers that will allow us to control our borders," said Netanyahu at a cabinet meeting Sunday. "We will not allow Israel to be flooded with illegal migrants and terrorists."
The security cabinet decided late June to approve the construction of the first section of the fence along a 30 km section between Eilat and the place where an international airport is being built at Timna.
The total project cost is estimated at about NIS 3 billion. The Prime Minister made sure that the money for the first section, NIS 250 million, would be transfered this week. However, the first section only protects a small part of the eastern border of Israel, which stretches over approximately 235 km from Eilat to Masada.
In the section between the Dead Sea to the triangular borders with Syria at Hamat Gader there has existed for many years a fence that alerts security forces when touched and it has even undergone several upgrades in recent years in known trouble spots as part of the situation assessment that was carried out by Israeli Central Command.
The border with Jordan is currently open in most places and at best has torn barbed wire fence or stone markings or signs as the only indication that it is in fact the border between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom.
Nevertheless, the army has invested over the last two years in the "adom" division and has developed a new operational approach due to fears over the breached border, which will remain so even after the establishment of a small section near Timna. They worry that it will be exploited by terrorists or smugglers who try to infiltrate via the Sinai through Aqaba and the Gulf of Eilat to the Jordanian Arava and then easily enter one of the isolated communities along the border with Jordan.
Within a year an additional mixed infantry battalion called Tamar is supposed to be established in the Arava. It will be include female and male fighters and its mission will be to permanently protect the huge border just like the mixed Caracal Battalion protects the Egyptian border.
Netanyahu: 'The fence - an important part of national security-
Over the last three years there were few security incidents or attempts to penetrate the Arava sector and these mainly included illegal smuggling or migrant workers. The Jordanian army, unlike the Egyptian army, maintains powerful and mobile forces at the border with Israel. Its level of coordination with Israeli forces has remained high and it has helped prevent hostile terrorist incidents on the border.
Israel updated Jordan on the erection of the fence and promised the Jordanians that the fence would be built on the Israeli side of the border and will not infringe on the Hashemite Kingdom's sovereignty and its national interests.
Netanyahu said regarding the cabinet's decision, "We took a very important decision in the cabinet to continue the section of the fence along our southern border, this time from Eilat - thirty kilometers to the north, near the airport which is being built. This is important, it is part of our national security, it ties up with the security fence we have built on the Egyptian border, which has stopped the entry of illegal infiltrators into Israel, and of course various terrorist movements."
The border fence with Jordan is primarily designed to prevent the infiltration of global jihadi operatives and Islamic State terrorists and it is also part of the change in security preparations ahead of the completion of the airport at Timna, which is 200 meters from the border and will begin to operate next year."
