JERUSALEM

Israel on Tuesday announced the completion of constructing a concrete wall around the blockaded Gaza Strip.

A Defense Ministry statement said the 65-kilometre-long (some 41 miles), 6-meter-high wall has an underground barrier with sensors, a sea barrier that includes means to detect intrusion at sea and a controlled weapon system.

The barrier is also equipped with a set of radars and cameras, and command and control rooms.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the barrier “prevents Hamas from one of their capabilities and places an iron wall between it and the residents of the south."

Israel is currently completing another wall in the occupied West Bank that it built in 2002.

Israel cites "security reasons" for constructing the barrier, but the Palestinians and the United Nations say that its construction aim “to annex Palestinian lands to Israel."

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara