Israel's Defense Minister Katz announces construction of new security fence on Jordanian border

The Defense Ministry released a statement on Tuesday stating that it "has begun detailed engineering planning for the construction of a security barrier on the eastern border."

The planning phase, expected to cost tens of millions of shekels, will involve creating an initial design for the barrier section. This will include data collection, the integration of information technology, and mapping environmental factors such as measurements, soil surveys and hydrological assessments.

A new security fence along the Jordanian border has been a recognized issue for several years now, with multiple instances of weapons smuggling along the border, often directed or assisted by the Iranian regime.

After a terror attack in September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Iran is also operating on the eastern front to smuggle arms to terrorists in the West Bank.”

“We intend to strengthen our capabilities in this area and take various additional actions – alongside constructing a barrier to prevent the smuggling of weapons. This will be addressed immediately in the 2025 budget.”

Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant requested funding for the construction of a new, high-tech border fence, but was rebuffed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. 

Last month, Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi decided to establish a new IDF division to handle defense and security along the Jordanian border, which is Israel’s longest border and has extreme changes in terrain along its length, which makes securing the border a difficult task. 

According to a statement by the previous Defense Ministry, the new division will focus on “dealing with terrorist incidents, preventing the smuggling of weapons and other tools, while maintaining peaceful relations on the border and increasing cooperation with the Jordanian army.” 

Two weeks ago, Halevi elected Colonel Oren Simcha, former Nahal Brigade commander, to the position of commander of the new Eastern Division. 

The creation of a new division was deemed urgent because the finance minister failed to approve the budget for building a new security fence, despite it being a long-standing request that dates back several years, even before the current coalition government took office in 2023.

Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yehuda Fuchs, the former head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Central Command, was a leading proponent of a new security fence before his retirement.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the decision to approve the fence budget may have been initiated by Netanyahu to provide Katz with a visible success shortly after assuming the position as defense minister.

Some Israeli analysts believe the approval could have been a reward for Katz’s decision last week to cancel any new administrative detention orders against Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria accused of violence against Palestinians. 

Smotrich, the head of the Religious Zionism party and an advocate for Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, has often criticized administrative detentions, even in cases where there is abundant evidence of illegal behavior by the suspects.

Construction of the new security fence is expected to last several months.

On Monday, the IDF announced that security forces recently thwarted another smuggling attempt along the Jordanian border, finding 14 pistols and 65 weapons parts hidden at the Adam Bridge near the border with Jordan. 

"Despite exceptional cooperation with the Jordanian army, it [smuggling] is increasing," said a source in the Southern Command. The source also warned that the smuggling routes could also be used for terror purposes. 

"The criminal route is always a penetration route for terrorists," the source said. "Our working assumption is that we are being examined in preparation for another larger attack."

Over the past years, Israeli security forces revealed numerous Iranian plots to smuggle “game-changing” weapons into Judea and Samaria via Jordan. Just this March, the Israel Security Agency (ISA), known internally as Shin Bet, confiscated a large Iranian shipment of advanced weaponry.