Security tension prevails in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel following the latest escalation round on Jan. 7. Israel responded to a Palestinian rocket and Molotov cocktails launched from Gaza into Israel earlier the same day. The Israeli air force struck Hamas positions and the Israeli government froze the transfer of the third installment of the Qatari financial grant to the Gaza Strip. The $150 million grant aims to settle the salaries of Gaza-based Palestinian Authority employees for six months under a Qatari-Israeli deal with Hamas reached in October 2018.

A week earlier, Israeli Channel 10 reported that the Israeli army announced the completion of the construction of the sea barrier off the beach of Zikim, on Gaza’s northern border. The barrier, which is 200 meters (656 feet) long and six meters (20 feet) high and took seven months to build, is fitted with sensors to detect the movement of Hamas infiltrators.

The Israeli army noted in an official statement on May 27, 2018, that the sea barrier consists of three layers: one underwater, then a layer of boulders and on top a barbed wire fence. Israel's Defense Ministry said the underwater barrier would be “impregnable breakwater.”

Israel's completion of the sea barrier along Gaza's west coast coincides with continued works for the construction of an underground barrier east of Gaza that started in September 2016. The underground barrier aims to cut off Hamas members from digging tunnels into Israel. Outgoing Israeli army Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said Jan. 8 during a farewell visit to southern Israel that he hopes the underground barrier would be completed by the end of the year.