Tens of thousands of missiles located across the Middle East are ready to strike Israel at a moment’s notice, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC)Brigadier General Hossein Salami threatened on Friday: “Today, more than 100,000 missiles are ready to fly from Lebanon,” adding that in addition there are “tens of thousands of destructive long-range missiles” in the region ready to wipe Israel off the map. (Read more)
Iron Dome, which uses guided missiles to shoot down the Katyusha-style short-range rockets favored by Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas, has scored around a 90% success rate in the month-old Gaza war, Israeli officials and U.S. observers say.
Rafael CEO Yedidia Yaari said the system’s performance had fuelled foreign interest in it, including by South Korea, which is in an armed standoff with North Korea: “South Korea is very worried not only about rockets, but other things as well ... You can certainly include them in the club of interested countries,”Yaari told Israel’s Army Radio, saying Rafael representatives had visited Seoul to promote Iron Dome.
Yaari did not give details on how advanced such a deal with South Korea may be. Rafael has not made public any foreign sales so far, saying it was giving priority to supplying Iron Domes to Israel, which has fielded nine out of a planned total of 12 interceptor units. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $50 million, and each interceptor missile between $30,000 and $50,000. Participating in Iron Dome’s production are Israeli defense contractors Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries, and U.S. defense contractor Raytheon.
Israel is deploying all of its missile defenses as a precaution against possible Syrian retaliatory attacks should Western powers carry out threatened strikes on Syria, Israeli Army Radio said today.
No special troop movements or exercises have been ordered (apart of a small-scale mobilisation of reservists)but additional Iron Dome and Patriot missile defense batteries were deployed Wednesday in Israeli areas near the Syrian border, Israeli defense officials said.
The missile defenses include:
Against long range missiles: Arrow-II
Against medium range missiles: Patriot
Against short range missiles: Iron Dome
Israel says the Iron Dome system shot down one of the four rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel last week, and intercepted a rocket fired toward the Red Sea resort town of Eilat earlier this month. The Iron Dome system has also intercepted rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have reportedly opened artillery fire towards Lebanon following the launch of Katuysha missiles into Northern Israel from South Lebanon.
Reports say that at least three missiles were fired from Lebanon into an area near the coastal city of Nahariya, with one intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system and at least two landing in uninhabited areas.
Missiles are a key tactic of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other terror groups on Israel’s northern and southern borders. Thousands of projectiles fell on Israel during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, and Hezbollah has since stockpiled tens of thousands of missiles it has said will be launched at Israeli cities in future fighting.
Four Katyusha missiles were launched today on northeastern Israel around 16:30.
Two of the missiles landed in the Galilee, one was intercepted by the Iron Dome system, and the fourth rocket overshot its target and landed in the Mediterranean Sea.
Residents in the coastal city of Nahariya and in the Western Galilee ran for shelters as sirens blared, warning of the incoming rockets. Bomb shelters in Acre, immediately south of Nahariya, were opened. The Hezbollah-run Al Manar network in Lebanon said that the rockets were launched by Hezbollah terrorists from Tyre. The army said it was looking into the incident and called on northern residents to remain close to bomb shelters, though they could otherwise go back to their normal routines. Israel last week deployed a sixth Iron Dome battery north of Tel Aviv, with an eye to the missile threat from the north.The anti-missile Iron Dome system is a keystone of Israel’s air defense array and successfully intercepted hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles shot at Israeli cities during the conflagration in Gaza in November.
Just two weeks after it came to light that Israel attacked a Russian missile compound in Syria in an act that may have been related to the massive 160,000 troop Russian ‘combat ready’ drill, new reports have surfaced that Israel has once again bombed Syrian missiles via Israeli air force jets. Reports coming in from Arutz Sheva (Israeli National News) detail the latest attack by Israel, this time hitting trucks that were said to be carrying Syrian missiles headed for a Hizbulla warehouse in Lebanon. (Read more)
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon issued his warning shortly after a top Russian official said his government reserves the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defense missiles. (Read more)
