Israel announced on Tuesday that it has completed the construction of an underground ‘barrier’ around the besieged Gaza Strip.
The 65-kilometer (40-mile) barrier has been described as an ‘iron wall’ and is equipped with a six-meter high above-ground fence, sensors, radars, and cameras, Reuters news agency reported.
Watch | The Israeli occupation announces the completion of the construction of the "iron wall" surrounding the #Gaza Strip. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/ogIKUYVEIc
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 8, 2021
The wall was completed after three and half years of construction, the Israeli defense ministry said in a statement.
Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed that the wall “prevents Hamas from one of their capabilities and places an iron wall between it and the residents of the south,” according to the official statement.
“Even before its creation on the ruins of historic Palestine, Israel has subscribed to the ‘Iron wall’ mentality, believing that walls, real or imagined, would quell Palestinian resistance and grant Israel peace and security at the expense of the oppressed and occupied natives of that land,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud commented.
From the 'Iron Wall' to the 'Villa in the Jungle', Palestinians demolish Israel's security myths | Article by: Dr Ramzy Baroud https://t.co/p22q8gyczS
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) September 15, 2021
“That never happened, however,” Baroud, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, added. “Palestinians continue to resist, and no amount of concrete or barbed wire would ever alter that equation. Unfortunately, Israel never learns”.
Gaza, with a population of 2 million, has been under a hermetic Israeli siege since 2006, when the Palestinian resistance group Hamas won the democratic legislative elections in occupied Palestine. Since then, Israel has carried out numerous bombing campaigns and several major wars, that resulted in the death of thousands of people.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
