FILE - Palestinians labors wait after crossing into Israel from West Bank at Eyal crossing. AP
"A total of approximately 500 old anti-tank mines, which had been laid in the area since the late 1960s, were destroyed," the ministry said in a statement.
Footage from the ministry showed workers setting up and detonating a linear explosion to take out mines in the Jordan Valley, along an already existing border fence.
In a previous statement, the ministry said the new border barrier would run roughly 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the southern Israeli-occupied Syria's Golan Heights to Samar Sands settlement, at Israel's southern tip.
The first phase of works will focus on the Jordan Valley, including the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Last December, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli authorities had started building a new separation wall in the northern Jordan Valley, stretching approximately 22 kilometers.
According to the newspaper, the Israeli army has reached advanced stages of construction, which include plans to demolish Palestinian buildings and infrastructure located along the wall’s route. These include homes, livestock shelters, greenhouses, storage facilities, pipelines, water wells, trees, and agricultural crops.
Haaretz said the authorities have named the project the “Scarlet Thread,” with this section designated as “Segment C” of a broader plan to separate and isolate Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley, in a manner similar to the separation wall elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli researcher Dror Etkes said the area of land currently slated for confiscation totals 1,093 dunams, most of which are privately owned by Palestinians from the towns of Tubas and Tammun, while only about 110 dunams are classified as state land.
Etkes added that the new wall represents another step in a clear trajectory aimed at emptying the fertile agricultural region of all Palestinian communities.
He said the project would impose severe restrictions on movement and access to schools, healthcare facilities, and markets, while separating farmers and landowners from their land, raising concerns over the continuation of forced displacement policies as part of what he described as attempts at the “de facto annexation” of the Jordan Valley.
Short link: