JERUSALEM—Israel has begun building a fence along part of the country’s eastern border with Jordan as Syrian civil war refugees and other migrants flee their countries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday: “We see today what happens when countries lose control of their borders.”

He seemed to be referring to the massive influx of refugees from the war-torn Middle East and African migrants heading to Europe.

Earlier in the day Netanyahu bemoaned the “human tragedy” of Syria’s civil war and said Israel has helped out victims. However, he said Israel isn’t large enough to do much more.

“Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees from Syria and Africa,” he said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “But Israel is a small country, a very small country, that lacks demographic and geographic depth; therefore, we must control our borders against illegal migrants and terrorism.”

Netanyahu travelled by helicopter after the cabinet meeting to tour the construction area for the new eastern fence. The first 30-kilometre section will start from Israel’s southern resort city of Eilat.

Israel has already built fences along its border with Egypt to stop African migrants and in the Golan Heights bordering Syria. Netanyahu said Israel is discussing multilateral aid packages with European governments aimed at helping African states “in order to deal with the problem at the source.”

With pressure growing on governments to open their doors to the flood of migrants to Europe, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog called on Netanyahu to let some refugees from Syria into the country.

“Have you forgotten what it’s like to be Jews, refugees, hunted?” Herzog, head of the Zionist Union bloc, said in a Facebook post. “Prime minister of the Jewish people, don’t close your heart when men are fleeing for their lives with babies in their arms.”

More than four million Syrians have fled their country’s civil war since 2011, most to other countries in the Middle East.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to let Palestinians from refugee camps in Syria enter the West Bank.

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