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The Soldiers Who Maintain Gaza's Security Fence

(Ha'aretz) Anshel Pfeffer - A small group of IDF technician-combat soldiers who are responsible for maintaining and repairing the Gaza security fence work mostly under cover of darkness. The soldiers are exposed to fire more than any other unit. Every time an incident takes place near or at the fence, a Kometz squad of the Ordnance Corps must check whether the fence sustained damage and repair it. The "smart fence" combines optic fibers and advanced sensory systems, backed up by radar. "The soldiers in the squad are on the one hand computer and high-tech experts for all intents and purposes - with a large percentage of the inspections of the fence being done with laptops connected to the system," says Warrant Officer Ran Shlomo. "On the other hand, we're also combat soldiers who work with a helmet and a ceramic flak jacket all the time, and who also know how to return fire when necessary." Since the end of the 2009 Gaza operation, the Palestinians have been unable to infiltrate the fence even once without being caught. In the vast majority of cases, terrorists were caught on surveillance cameras or radar several hundred meters before the fence. "On the Gaza border there is almost no depth, because of the proximity of Palestinian homes to the fence and the proximity of the Israeli communities on the other side," explains a senior officer in the Gaza division. "That's why the fence is such a critical component. There are advanced systems on it that don't exist on any other border of the country."
2010-12-03 08:07:31
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