Israel builds marine barrier north of Gaza

Israel began construction of a marine barrier off the northern coast of the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Israeli news website Ynet reported that the naval barrier, which is being headed by the Ministry of Defence, is designed to prevent potential “infiltration of a Hamas terror cell” into Israel from Gaza. The multi-million dollar project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

According to Ynet, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman hailed the barrier as being one-of-a-kind and “an additional setback for Hamas, which has lost another strategic capability that it has invested massive amounts in developing.”

Israeli news daily Haaretz reported that the barrier will consist of three layers: an underwater level, topped by a layer of stone and an above-water barbed wire fence. The entire barricade itself will be surrounded by another fortified fence.

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The barrier will reportedly span 37 miles, and is expected to cost approximately three billion shekels ($833 million), with each kilometre of the underground part of the barrier costing an estimated 41.5 million shekels ($11.5 million). The cost of constructing the aboveground fence were reported to be 1.5 million shekels ($416,000) per kilometre.

According to Israeli media, the decision to build the naval barrier was prompted by an incident in the 2014 Israeli offensive on Gaza, when Hamas entered Israeli territory by sea.

Since the 2014 war in Gaza, Israel has maintained an underwater sensor system along the maritime border with the northern Gaza Strip, enabling the Israeli forces to spot divers and swimmers in the area.

The more than two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip have suffered from an 11-year Israeli-imposed land, air and sea blockade, which has plunged the small territory into poverty with the highest unemployment rate in the world.

The UN has reported that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020.