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Ashkelon residents report seeing Grad explode in midair as dozens of rockets fired at south, meanwhile Hamas says Israel taking advantage of Goldstone's regret over Gaza war report to bomb Strip

Israel on Sunday prepared to deploy the first units of its recently-developed Iron Dome anti-missile system to battered Israeli towns within range of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already warning that the Iron Dome will not be able to stop all Palestinian missile attacks emanating from Gaza. Gaza-based terrorists have been firing an increasing number of short-range Kassam and more advanced Grad missiles into southern Israel over the past week. Last week, several missiles reached as far north Rishon Lezion and Yavne, towns just 10 miles south of Tel Aviv. Many of the missiles...

Some defense officials warn of ramifications of deploying system without ability to protect all of cities under missile fire. As missile fire from the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday, the IDF is preparing for the possible deployment of the Iron Dome counter-rocket defense system along Israel’s border with Gaza. In late February, the Israeli Air Force held a test of the counter-rocket defense system, Iron Dome, which was supposed to serve as the final stage before declaring the system operational. While a month has passed since then, the system is nowhere to be found despite the recent escalation and daily...

The Iron Dome missile intercept system will be declared operational within a number of weeks, after the Israel Air Force – who will be responsible for operating the system – conducted successful test-runs for the first time on Tuesday and Wednesday. The interception of target missiles in the test-runs proved successful, and this marked the final stage of tests of the new Israel Air Force unit. The operation was conducted at a test site in southern Israel, practicing five different scenarios in which the system launched rockets at various ranges. The missiles launched by the Iron Dome successfully intercepted and...

The IDF’s "Magic Wand" (Sharvit Kesamim) system for intercepting intermediate-range rockets was successfully tested last week, the BaMachane military magazine reports in its latest issue. The tests took place in southern Israel last week and were conducted by the Defense Ministry and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems under the attack conditions that Israel expects. At the end of the experiments it was estimated that the system will become operational within several years. Magic Wand is intended to deal with a wide range of threats, and is essentially designed to fill a gap between the Iron Dome system for short-range missiles, such...

The Israeli military revealed that its new Iron Dome anti-rocket system was not meant for defending towns and villages, but military bases. For years, politicians touted Iron Dome as a means of defending civilians living close to rockets fired from Gaza in the south and Lebanon in the north. But it turns out that it takes about 15 seconds for Iron Dome to detect, identify and fire its missiles. But most of the civilian targets currently under fire from Gaza are so close to the border (within 13 kilometers) that the rockets are fired and land in less than 15...

After months of deliberations, the IDF has decided to store the Iron Dome anti-rocket system at an air force base in the center of the country and to deploy it only in cases of extreme rocket fire from either the Gaza Strip or southern Lebanon, senior military sources said on Sunday. The decision was made ahead of the planned announcement that Iron Dome had reached “initial operational capability,” initially scheduled for this month. On Sunday, top IDF officers told The Jerusalem Post that the initial operational capability would be postponed until the first quarter of 2011. The delay, the officers...

Israel will deploy in November its anti-missile system designed to combat threats from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, the defence ministry said on Monday. "The Iron Dome interceptor, in conjunction with air force and anti-aircraft systems, successfully downed a large number of threats in fully operational mode," the ministry said in statement. "The first two batteries will become operational in November 2010," it said adding that "the defence ministry will soon place orders for additional batteries." The system is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells, of which Hamas and the Hezbollah have fired thousands at Israel in the...

Israel inched a step closer recently to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip after the Iron Dome system successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests. The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israel Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which developed the Iron Dome, slated to be declared operational in the near future. Israel inched a step closer recently to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip after the Iron Dome system successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests. The...

The US House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly backed President Barack Obama's plans to help Israel deploy an anti-missile system, in an unmistakable election-year show of support. By a 410-4 margin, lawmakers endorsed Obama's plan to give Israel 205 million dollars for its production of a short-range rocket defense system called "Iron Dome." "With nearly every square inch of Israel at risk from rocket and missile attacks, we must ensure that our most important ally in the region has the tools to defend itself," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman. "The looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and...

The budgetary difficulty that has been delaying Israel's armament with the anti-missile defense system Iron Dome has apparently been resolved. The Pentagon has issued a message to Israel's Defense Ministry that U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the transfer of special assistance totaling $205 million (just under NIS 800 million) for the purchase of more than ten Iron Dome batteries. Iron Dome defense system gets new backer: Barack Obama U.S. agrees to fund anti-missile defense system, long delayed due to budgetary difficulties, beyond regular annual defense assistance afforded to Israel. The budgetary difficulty that has been delaying Israel's armament with...

As Hezbollah builds up its rocket arsenal, Israel has asked Washington to help pay for more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to shield the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Defense Ministry wants to buy more than a dozen batteries of the system designed to counter short-range missiles fired by the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrillas and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The ministry had allocated $250 million for the development of the system, the bottom layer of a planned three-tier missile defense shield, and the purchase of two batteries. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $25 million,...

Singapore is reported to be acquiring Israel's new Iron Dome anti-missile air-defense system under a once-secret military cooperation pact with the Jewish state that dates to the 1960s. Indeed, according to the Paris Intelligence Online Web site, Singapore helped finance the development of the system by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It says that Iron Dome was always intended for the island, a key Asian shipping hub and one of the richest per capita states in the world, because of its strategic location as a trading center. The Israeli air force, which runs the Jewish state's air defense network, completed test-firings...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

As Israel braces for possible war with Iran and its proxies, a new kind of conflict in which the civilian population will be a primary target for massive missile barrages, there are growing concerns about the military's ability to shield cities as well as its key bases. In the 34-day 2006 war Israel fought with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Tehran's main surrogate in the Levant, the Shiite movement fired some 4,000 rockets, supplied by Iran and Syria, into Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa, at a rate of around 150 per day. That was the deepest Hezbollah...

Israel has completed testing its Iron Dome anti-rocket system, and has bought seven batteries, to be delivered over the next two years. Each battery has radar and control equipment, and four missile launchers. The first battery will be delivered within six months. Based on how that one does, another will be installed on the Lebanese border next year. Each battery costs about $37 million, which includes over fifty missiles. During tests, the system detected and shot down BM-21 and Kassam rockets. The manufacturer, Rafael, was offered a large bonus if they got the system working ahead of schedule. When Iron...

Despite all the media fanfare and ballyhoo about the impending deployment of another missile-defense system, Israeli commentators are warning that the Jewish state's much-vaunted defense shield has a few chinks in it. The Defense Ministry announced on Jan. 7 that Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down short-range missiles and mortar shells, had sailed through a series of test-firings with flying colors. The first operational battery would soon be deployed on the southern front against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to counter rockets fired by the Palestinian militants. Iron Dome is intended to be the bottom layer in a missile...

Days after completing a test of its Iron Dome shield, Israel says it will take years before the Jewish state's new rocket anti-missile system will be fully deployed. The warning was sounded by Defense Minister Ehud Barak who predicted, meantime, that once deployed along his country's borders with Gaza and Lebanon, the Iron Dome system will significantly reduce hostilities from militants. Developed over the last two years at a cost of $200 million by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., the Iron Dome uses small guided missiles to destroy short-range rockets used by Hezbollah and Hamas militants. The system, which...

Israel has completed testing its Iron Dome short-range missile defence system, designed to protect the Jewish state from missile attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas. The first Iron Dome battery is expected to be deployed in the country's south in about six weeks. Expected to be operational by May, the Iron Dome system is expected to counter Hamas' improvised rockets, called the Qassam. The system will be operated by the Israeli Air Force. Subsequently, batteries will be deployed in the country's north against the Hezbollah's more varied missile forces. "Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's political...

Israel has completed tests on its Iron Dome anti-missile system, designed to provide a response to the thousands of rockets fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, the defence ministry said. The system, which can intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells, underwent its final tests in the past 48 hours, a statement said. "For the first time, Iron Dome faced multiple threats simultaneously. All the threats were intercepted with complete success," the statement said. The next phase in the development of the system was to integrate it into the army, the statement said. Israel hopes the system will provide it...