About 60,000 Africans have come into Israel through Egypt's Sinai Desert in recent years. Israel says the vast majority are illegal job seekers and disputes arguments by humanitarian agencies that they should be considered for asylum.

 

Israeli activist Baruch Marzel:

"Today in Tel Aviv people are afraid to go out of their houses because of a lot of criminal attacks in their neighbourhoods. Half of the people in 'Hatikva' and other neighbourhoods are people that came in from Africa and took over the neighbourhoods."

 

Israel has almost completed the construction of a fence along its 160-mile-long frontier with the Egyptian Sinai that runs from the Gaza Strip in the north to the Red Sea resort city of Eilat; the last gaps are due to be sealed by the end of the year. The region has been the site of a number of violent cross-border incidents in recent months and Israeli authorities hope the steel barrier will stop not only migrants but also Sinai-based militants intent on attacking the Jewish state. 

 

Source: JN1