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With the support of Christians in North America and around the world, the Jerusalem-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) on Sunday, 21 Iyar, donated a surveillance drone to the community of Efrat.

IFCJ’s founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, formally presented the drone to Efrat Council head Oded Ravivi and local officials, in the wake of requests by the community for help in bolstering its anti-terror security. The request came after a terrorist broke through Efrat’s security fence in 2016 and stabbed a resident before escaping.

“IFCJ works in three areas — immigration, welfare, and security — for the benefit of the State of Israel,” said Eckstein. “Once we received this request, we raised the necessary amount and promoted the project with all our might. Now that we’ve been able to help protect Efrat, we’re committed to providing this kind of defense capability to all communities who need it. The security of the citizens of the State of Israel is among our top priorities.”

The drone, produced by the Israeli firm 3rd Eye Systems, will allow Efrat security officials to monitor the area and alert the Israel Defense Forces and security officials in real time, should another terrorist try to infiltrate the community, reducing the response time to potential security threats.

“In recent years there has been a sharp security turnaround, and we have identified attempts to infiltrate the settlement once every month or month and a half. After the last two episodes, we tried to devise another solution,” said Ravivi. It took time for us to find an idea and funding, but today, thanks to IFCJ, we launched the drone in the hope that we will not need it.”

IFCJ will be providing the communities of Shar HaNegev and Ashkelon Coast, near Gaza, with surveillance drones for similar defense measures and has also received many similar requests from other communities.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)