High-tech system failed: why couldn’t Gaza’s border fence protect Israel?

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A “wall made of iron, sensors and concrete”. This is how then-Defense Secretary Benny Gantz described the border system at the inauguration of the most recent renovation about two years ago. On YouTube, Israeli technology group Elbit showed what the ‘Torch-X Borders’ system can supposedly do. In theory everything seemed to work, but in practice it was different.

But how does high-tech defense work? The area is monitored day and night from observation towers with cameras and radar. Reconnaissance drones observe from the air and vehicles equipped with sensors drive through the area. Modern equipment makes it possible to intercept enemy communications. All this information is brought together in a command center and advice is given in which order which possible threats should be combated. Ground troops are then sent – ​​at least theoretically – to the scene of a possible border violation.

Attackers came from the sea, from the air, over land

Last weekend it became clear that even highly developed technology alone cannot achieve much – if ground troops are not deployed. The border fence is apparently responsible for the deaths of at least 700 people in Israel and more than 100 kidnapped, as “Spiegel” reports. Because border security didn’t work as planned. “It is shocking that so many gaps remain open, both in terms of personnel and technology,” political scientist Frank Sauer told the magazine.

The border seems insurmountable: the Iron Dome missile defense system ensures safety in the air. The border fencing not only runs above ground, but is also intended to prevent underground tunnel construction. But the facility was not armed against the attackers: the Hamas fighters flattened the fence with bulldozers, pickup trucks and motorcycles and destroyed the surveillance technology with drones. Then they came with motorboats and motorized paragliders.

Sauer knows why the border system was so easy to circumvent: “Security solutions based solely on technology are often based on the assumption that the enemy will not think ahead and adapt to it. That is a problem. Slow, low-flying attackers with paragliders, for example, could apparently outsmart the sensors; someone with binoculars would have spotted it straight away.

For the time being, the breached defenses will not be protected with highly modernized technology, but with tanks, Spiegel said. In the meantime, the questions remain why the expensive system failed, how the massacre could have occurred, and why the expensive technology could not protect Israel. (gs)

Source: Blick