Israel will surround Gaza with sensors – Dagbladet.no

(Dagbladet): Midway through the fragile three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas announced British Telegraph that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) examines the ability to surround the Gaza Strip with a new sensor system. The purpose is to discover new tunnels Hamas and other militant groups based in order to take into Israel and carry out attacks raid.

To detect and destroy tunnels between Gaza and Israel has been a main object of the extensive Israeli offensive “Operation Protective Edge, “which began on July 8 and so far has cost over 2,000 people their lives, largely Palestinian civilians.

4. August declared that the IDF over 30 tunnels – that is all they know – is destroyed. It is regarded as probable that there are additional undiscovered and intact tunnels.

Testing

IDF’s new sensor system according to the Israeli major newspaper Yedioth Aronoth developed over the last four years, the Armed Forces high-tech development Talpiot. The system has already been tested in the sewers of Tel Aviv, and now the more testing tour.

If the sensor system is approved for use, it can be installed along the 64 km long border between Gaza and Israel. It will cost between 1700 and NOK 2,550 million, said an Israeli officer Yedioth Aronoth.

The system should be able to detect ongoing excavation work and cavities in the ground. According to the interviewed unnamed officer stern army to recommend that the sensor installation is accompanied by reinforcements in the soil, making it difficult to dig.

– Could have been avoided

Washington Post earlier Jerusalem chief Janine Zacharia is however, critical of Israel only now ready to build a sensor system around Gaza. In an opinion piece in his former newspaper she writes that the Israeli authorities have long known technology that can detect tunnels, and that “Operation Protective Edge” – with accompanying loss of life – completely or partially avoidable.

Zacharia lists several researchers and companies sitting on solutions to detect tunnels. Common to them all is that they were rebuffed by Israel – because they are only able to detect tunnels on the Israeli side of the border.

– Unfortunately, Israel must now invest time and money in perfecting tunnelloppdagingssystemet anyway, writes Zacharia – and points out that tunnel threat also exists along its borders with Lebanon, Egypt and the West Bank.

During the ongoing three-day ceasefire, which is in its second day, Dealer Israel and Hamas in Egypt’s capital Cairo. The hope is to bring about a permanent ceasefire, but the odds are regarded as low.

Israel has offered Hamas to ease the blockade of the Gaza Strip, including to make it easier to fish in the waters outside the enclave. However stranded negotiations partly because Hamas demand to build port facilities and airports on the strip. Hamas also refuses to let them disarm.