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Commentary;
Throughout the entire story of how the Gaza/Egyptian border was breached by hundreds of thousands of Gaza Islamics, we’re hearing calls by the IDF for travellers and tourists to refrain from travelling to Sinai. And we hear that the IDF has closed hiking trails near Egypt border.
However, southern Negev residents tell quite a different story. Can it be that the Egyptian, Gaza border with Israel is unprotected? MB
Local residents: High Alert on Egyptian Border Bogus, Yonat Atlas (Ynet)
Excerpts;
Southern residents charged Saturday that IDF announcements regarding a heightened state of alert on the Egyptian border were bogus and were not backed up by any measures on the ground. Locals and visiting hikers alike said they have not seen any extra presence of soldiers along the border.
Residents of the Ramat Hanegev regional council also said they are furious over the IDF’s announcement regarding the closure of tourist sites near the Israel-Egypt border.
Local tourism industry members said the army’s announcement hurt tourism numbers in the area and added they were not informed about the supposed closure of tourist sites and hiking trails before an IDF statement to that effect was published in the media.
Southern resident Yakov Moscowitz told Ynet that he drove along Highway 10 with his community’s security chief for about two hours uninterrupted and without being stopped by soldiers. The army announced Thursday it was sealing off the highway.
“We wanted to see whether forces along the border were indeed reinforced,” Moscowitz said. “When we drove along Highway 10 we saw no new roadblocks were set up.”
“The existing army posts are unmanned, and we discovered flares lying around near one of the outposts,” he said. “We fired one flare and even then no soldiers arrived. The entire border is breached. There is a large gap between the media statements issued by the army and what is happening on the ground.”