Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu flew down to the border with Egypt Tuesday to look at the progress of the fence along Israel´s western border. The prime minister expressed satisfaction with the pace of the work.

Currently, 104 kilometers of the 242-kilometer-long border with Egypt has a 4.7-meter fence with razor barbed wire. By September, another 123 kilometers are expected to be finished with the whole border sealed by the end of the year.

Netanyahu said that the fence answers one of Israel´s four threats, which he identified as the nuclear threat, the missile threat, the cyber threat, and the border threat.

The prime minister said that the fence does three things: it bars entrance of illegal workers, stops smugglers, and is a barrier to terrorists.

Netanyahu has been taking these trips to the border to monitor the fence´s progress every six months since he came into office and has made it a key priority in his government.

During the visit, Netanyahu referenced the fire in Rehovot Monday night in which five members of a family were killed, saying the whole country is shocked by what happened there and would do everything it could to help the surviving mother. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/27/12)