Israeli soldiers check an open spot on the fence.
Image: AFP
After the Bnei Brak attack, Israel promises to close the gaps in the West Bank fence. But Palestinian workers also come into the country via these unofficial crossings – which Israel, too, can hardly do without.
ZTwo slightly shivering soldiers come trudging through the high grass. It’s only just gotten light and they’ve had a chilly night. After ensuring that the morning visitors are not Palestinians, they return to their posts. Sleeping bags, clothes and equipment lie scattered next to a black tent. A soldier in his undershirt is brushing his teeth. Twenty meters behind the improvised camp, a fence cuts through the landscape. In the middle: a big hole.
The attack by a Palestinian in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak on Tuesday drew attention to a problem that had long been ignored: the barrier that Israel has erected on and in the West Bank since the days of the Second Intifada is becoming increasingly porous become. Especially where it is not a high wall but a fence, numerous uncontrolled passages have arisen over the years. We’re talking about hundreds. The assassin from Bnei Brak also got through one of them before he killed five people in the ultra-Orthodox town with an assault rifle and was finally shot himself.
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