By: Savannah Smith | 08-12-2017 | News
Photo credit: Rafael Ben Ari | Dreamstime.com

Model for the U.S.?: Israel to Build an $800 Million Underground Gaza Wall

Israel has been doing what President Trump has been dreaming and wanting with the Middle Eastern country’s wall building program. Trump has always expressed admiration for said program and determination of Israel. Now there’s more reason to point to Israel as a ‘model’ in building walls as the country’s army has just announced construction details of a new underground wall to run along Israel’s border with Gaza.

The barrier is pegged at a $800 million cost and will stretch across the country’s 40-mile frontier within the territory, measuring 19 feet high, but also delving 131 feet underground. It is intended to primarily counter the threat of attack tunnels dug by hamas, the Islamist group that has dominated and controlled Gaza since 2007.

Plans for the wall were first announced in 2014. On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) revealed details of the construction. Work is scheduled to start in October and estimated to finish in two years’ time. The Times has reported that Israel has, in fact, built factories to produce concrete along its border. Construction workers will include east African asylum seekers, as well as those from Spain and Moldova, to help sustain the round-the-clock effort.

Construction will mainly use concrete, reinforced with iron bars and pipes and covered in sensors. It will also extend further into the Mediterranean to stop Hamas fighters from swimming ashore.

A military official said that in spite of potential threats and challenges from Hamas to stop the wall construction, the wall will be defended and “it would be built at any price”.

During the war in 2014 that lasted all of summer, Hamas used attack tunnels to ambush Israeli military posts and to transport weapons and ammunition across the border. That is part of the reasons why Israel has deep ambitions to close off tunnels Hamas uses to attack the country.

Source:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/israel-to-spend-800m-on-underground-gaza-wall-lpmk5z787

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