JNS.org – The chief of staff of the IDF said that tens of thousands of Palestinians illegally enter Israel every day, and that more effective policies and penalties are needed to stem this flow.

According to Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, more than 50,000 Palestinians manage to do this daily through gaps in the security barrier. Only 4,300 of these are arrested every year, and only 1,500 indicted.

“The front in Judea and Samaria is a challenge to the IDF in recent months…the Palestinians see terror as a political and religious tool,” Eizenkot told Israeli lawmakers at a special hearing, Haaretz reported.

Eizenkot said that Israel needs to invest in improvements in procedures for granting work permits to Palestinians, as well as imposing harsher penalties for employers who provide sleeping quarters and transportation for illegal workers.

“A balance must be created between the needs of the Palestinian economy and [Israeli] security requirements,” Eizenkot said. “Permit holders were not terrorists in the latest wave and it seems to me not even over the past decade. We are making great efforts to close the gaps, but there are still about 100 kilometers without a security fence.”