The Taba Border Crossing between Israel and Egypt. Photo: NYC2TLV via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster congratulated the Ministry of Defense’s Israel National Mine Action Authority on Wednesday for completing an operation to clear an area of the Negev Desert near the Egyptian border that had mines.

The area, stretching out 2,700 dunams (1 square mile), has been made safe for setting up farmland and building new homes for families, said Schuster’s office in a statement.

“Releasing these territories enables a strengthening of agricultural settlement on our western border,” stated Schuster, a former head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council in the Negev.

He pledged to continue to clear mine zones, firing zones, and camps that can be evacuated by the defense establishment throughout Israel to benefit farming, tourism and settlement.