JERUSALEM - Israel is to begin work within weeks on a second security fence separating the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.
The defence ministry is to appoint contractors this week to go ahead with the construction that seeks to prevent Palestinian infiltrations into Israel.
Being built on Israeli territory and set to measure 70 metres (230 feet) wide, security devices, such an unmanned vehicles, security cameras and sensors will be erected in the no-man's land between the two fences, the radio said.
Work on the barrier is due to be completed before Israel begins its planned three-to-four-week evacuation of all 8,000 Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers from occupied Gaza from July 20.
The existing security fence was built one year after the 1993 Oslo accords, more or less along the 1967 Green Line, almost hermetically sealing the Palestinians living in the 362 square kilometre (140 square mile) territory.
Israel maintains that another security barrier separating the Jewish state from the West Bank is an essential security deterrent that bars would-be attackers from infiltrating its territory.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled the barrier, which often juts deep into Palestinian territory, "illegal" in an non-binding opinion last July, but Israel vowed to complete building it.
Last month, the Israeli cabinet voted a modified path for the barrier that takes in less Palestinian land but absorbs at least two large settlement blocs.
Palestinians have slammed the barrier as an "apartheid wall" and charge that the fence seeks to predetermine the borders of their future state.
03/13/2005 09:02 GMT