Woman soldiers to guard Gaza
2005-04-03 21:53
Jerusalem - Women soldiers will operate remote-control machine guns along a new fence around Gaza after Israel's withdrawal, according to a military publication.
The system, called "Lethal", combines cameras, sensors and automatic weapons to stop infiltrators, the current issue of the soldiers' weekly Bamahane reported.
Remote-controlled observation posts operated by women soldiers are already in use around Gaza. The operators, watching their section of the front on computer screens, can direct soldiers to a point of an attempted infiltration, the weekly said.
Several Israeli villages and towns are next to the Gaza-Israel fence, and the observation posts are meant to prevent terror attacks by armed infiltrators from Gaza.
A picture with the brief article showed three female soldiers operating an array of observation equipment in a command post.
The new element in the "Lethal" system is that the soldiers in the command post will be able to aim and fire an array of machine guns at suspected infiltrators. The weapon will have a range of 1 500-2 000m, the weekly said.
Remote control guns
The remote-control guns would do the job of the soldiers who now chase down infiltrators.
The initiator of the programme, recently retired deputy chief of staff Gaby Ashkenazi, determined that the female soldiers would need only limited extra training to operate the machine guns, the weekly said.
Israel plans to pull out of the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in the summer. Bamahane reported earlier that the military is building a more sophisticated fence around the territory to prevent infiltrations.
The military reports often about foiling attempts by Palestinians to cross the fence from Gaza into Israel. Most are unarmed men looking for work.
On Sunday, soldiers stopped three unarmed Palestinians who had crossed from Gaza, bringing to 33 the total of attempted infiltrations this year, the military said.
- AP