Israeli authorities have again started mulling the possibility of building a wall along the border with Jordan in wake of the arrest of Palestinians who had infiltrated the border to carry out attacks in Israel.
Security sources said on Sunday the two Palestinians were arrested with Kalashnikov rifles in their possession. They were detained near the Petza'el settlement in the Jordan Valley.
They surrendered without resistance and confessed during interrogations that they were planning to carry out an attack in Israel in retaliation to the war on Gaza.
Jordan’s Interior Ministry said overnight on Friday that it was monitoring Israeli reports of the arrest of Palestinian gunmen who had crossed the border into Israel.
The incident raised more questions about the performance of the Israeli political leadership that is mired in internal disputes that have prevented it from building the border war for years, said security and military sources. The project would cost 7 billion shekels, or around 1 billion dollars.
The Finance Ministry has been refusing to allocate a budget for the construction and has demanded that that the army provide the amount from its massive budget.
The sources hoped the arrest would open the political leadership’s eyes to the need to build the wall along the 238-kilometer border, stretching from Lake Tiberias to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Israel had initially proposed such an idea around 20 years ago, but it backed down from it for financial reasons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived the debate in 2018 to prevent the infiltration of migrants from Africa.
He declared at the time that Israel was one of the few countries in the world that completely controls its borders and with that, it has one border that has not been dealt with and that is the eastern border. “We need to close it. If not, then we there won't be a Jewish state,” he added.
Nothing came of Netanyahu’s proposal because the construction of the wall demands Jordanian and Palestinian approval.
Concerns have also been raised the wall may impact groundwater, the flow of river water and lead to the loss of Palestinian lands. However, an uptick in arms smuggling and infiltration attempts have again revived the debate over the wall.
Critics of the proposal have pointed to the various walls and fences that Israel had erected along Gaza, the West Bank, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria that have not thwarted security breaches and gunmen.
