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Israel starts work on border barrier with Egypt

22 November 2010 18:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Israeli bulldozers began laying the groundwork on Monday for construction of a barrier to seal off part of the Jewish state’s border with Egypt, the Defense Ministry said, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Israel says it wants to stop illegal migrants from Africa entering the country via Egypt’s Sinai desert and to block the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
The desolate Sinai is used as a transit route by African migrants seeking work or asylum in Israel. They are usually guided to the border for a price by local Bedouin.
Egyptian border troops have shot dead at least 28 migrants this year before they could cross.
Heavy earth-moving equipment started work on several stretches of the border while Egyptian police watched casually from the other side.
As construction began, Israeli soldiers detained a group of about 30 Africans trying to cross illegally into the country.
The project is expected to take over a year to complete at a cost of 1.35 billion shekels (about $370 million), the Defense Ministry said.
"We are currently working to secure 140 km (88 miles) of the 250 km border and it will include both a physical barrier and electronic early-warning scanners," Udi Shani, a Defense Ministry official, told lawmakers on Monday.
A barrier that would secure the entire border still requires government approval and could see the cost of the project rise to about 4 billion shekels (more than $1 billion)
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was constructing the barrier to protect its citizens and stop "the illicit importation of drugs ... people smuggling and ... the infiltration into Israel of terrorists who want to kill our people."
A Palestinian suicide bomber who crossed into Israel from Sinai killed three people in a bakery in the resort city of Eilat in 2007.
The Israel-Egypt border stretches from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in the north to the city of Eilat on the Red Sea in the south. The two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979 and much of the frontier is open with only border patrols and watch towers monitoring the barren landscape.