In Israel, Race to Safeguard Borders From Multi-Dimensional Threats

In a country surrounded by instability and strife, where threats to its borders have come from the air, by sea, on land or underground, Israel is a veritable test lab for anti-infiltration technologies and operational concepts.

Along all of its borders, Israel has deployed or is in the process of deploying integrated command and control networks of sensor-fused barriers — mostly 5-meter-high fences, but in some limited places, concrete walls — all supported by combat assets of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Altogether, security sources here estimate that Israel has invested tens of billions of shekels to secure more than 600 kilometers of frontiers with Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Egypt and, most recently, its northern and southern stretches of border with Jordan.

In the West Bank and the East Jerusalem environs alone — where de facto borders are not recognized by the international community — an Israeli Ministry of Defense source estimated security costs at 14 billion shekels (US $3.6 billion) over the past 15 years.

 

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