Data presented by Israel's Population and Immigration Authority shows a sharp drop in the number of illegal immigrants over the past three months. According to a press release issued by the prime minister's office on Monday, the authority stated that only six people entered the country illegally over the last weekend, and only 248 entered throughout the month of July. All of the illegal immigrants caught this month have been transferred to detainment camps and were not driven to central Israel, as opposed to common practice over the last few years.

If compared to the 1,000 or so illegal immigrants caught during June and 2,000 during May, a substantial decrease can be seen over the course of the last few months. The authority continued to say that all the illegal immigrants that entered Israel this month came in through an unfenced segment of the Israeli-Egyptian border. The part of the fence is due to be completed by October.

The government is due to convene on Monday to discuss unilateral budget cuts, which among other items has been addressing the issue of illegal immigration coming out of the Sinai Peninsula. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his office's meeting that "after years of not handling the matter of the infiltrators, a new government plan now aims to reverse this trend. We are now seeing a significant decrease in the number of infiltrators."


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