Why Did Israel Think a Border Fence Would Protect It from an Army of Terrorists?

Ahnaf Kalam

On the morning of October 7 — a date that will long be marked as one of the Jewish people’s darkest days — Israel’s security concept crumbled as Hamas terrorists streamed through, over, and around its Gaza border fence.

Israeli leaders believed that the fortification, an NIS 3.5 billion ($1.1 billion) project that took over three years to complete, would provide a defensive shield around its citizens on the border.

“This barrier, a creative, technological project of the first order, denies Hamas one of the capabilities that it tried to develop and puts a wall of iron, sensors and concrete between it and the residents of the south,” said then-defense minister Benny Gantz at a ceremony marking its completion in 2019.

As videos of the calamity on Saturday made painfully clear, the fence did next to nothing to stop the invasion.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Middle East Forum Writing Fellow.

Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.