It would, perhaps, be difficult to find an image that could better represent the long history of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the decades of brutal Israeli occupation, the recurrent Hamas bombings and rocket strikes, and the political deterioration on both sides than the image doing rounds on social media of a bulldozer pulling down a portion of a fence that has long enclosed the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas, in a surprise attack on Saturday, fired thousands of rockets at Israel as its fighters entered Israeli territory by land, sea and even air. More than 1,000 people have died on the both sides in the war — with 700 in Israel in its bloodiest conflict yet.
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“This is the first time since 1948 any Palestinian militant movement has taken territory in Israel proper. That symbolic victory (and defeat for Israel) will resonate across the region,” professor Clive Jones, director of Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (IMEIS) at Durham University told HT.
The Palestinian group, which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by several, mainly Western, countries, has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip since 2007. In response, Israel imposed a blockade over Gaza, which has devastated the economy and turned the enclave into what rights groups have long called an open-air prison.
A crucial component of this is a sophisticated border fence.
The first contours of the present day “security fence” began in 1994, after the signing of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip when Israel constructed a 60km fence along its boundary with the eastern Palestinian enclave. The construction was completed in 1996 though it didn’t necessarily represent a hard border.
In 2005, under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel carried out a disengagement from Gaza, which included, among other things, pulling out its troops. This meant that the one-kilometre buffer zone that the Israeli Defence Forces maintained after the first fence was torn down by Gazans in 2000 was no longer a possibility.
A plan for an alternate fortified fence few dozen metres east of the original fence, entirely on Israeli land, was developed. The present day 65-kilometre barrier has several sections: a 6-metre (20ft) high “smart” over-the-ground fence, with a maritime section manned by sensors to detect incursions from the water, and an underground wall of classified depth and thickness, with sensors to detect any digging. (Hamas used tunnels to blindside Israeli troops in a 2014 war.)
The overground barrier, which makes up 81% of the fence, is supported by a complex network of cameras, radar systems, as well as command and control rooms. 140,000 tonnes of iron and steel were used in the construction of the underground wall, which took three-and-a-half years to complete. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.11 billion.
“The barrier, which is an innovative and technologically advanced project, deprives Hamas of one of the capabilities it tried to develop,” former Israeli defence minister Benny Gantz said in 2021 after the construction was completed. “[It] places an ‘iron wall’, sensors and concrete between the terror organisation and the residents of Israel’s south.”
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But for the 2.3 million Gazans, who have been virtually trapped for 15 years, as well as Palestinians on the West Bank, who have been constantly surveilled, have their movement restricted, and have experienced growing military violence, this means something else.
While the Israeli response will be fed by the failure of this system, making the future of all Palestinians even more precarious, the impact of Saturday’s attack will create ripples for the time being. “For Palestinians this is hugely significant, psychologically and symbolically. It shatters that idea of Israel’s military superiority, at least for now,” added professor Jones.
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