The rockets’ red glare (or at least their boom-boom) appeared again last night over southern Israel in the region adjacent to the Gaza strip. Our Israeli correspondent MC reports that Sderot escaped the attack this time:
For once we were not the target. Five missiles were launched against Ashkelon last night and intercepted by Iron Dome. There followed an IAF retaliation in the early hours of this morning.
It was noisy, but I wonder at just what point the real people of Gaza, those ‘slaves’ of Hamas who are on the receiving end, feel justified in throwing off the yoke of bondage. Despotism is never nice, especially when it is supported and subsidized by donations from supposedly benign Western nations.
The proxy support of cowardly nations in northern Europe keeps the average Gaza man in the street in torment from the real oppressor and occupier of Gaza: Hamas.
Videos of retaliatory IAF airstrikes on Gaza may be viewed at The Jerusalem Post website.
Below is a news report on the rocket attack and the Israeli response:
Gaza Rocket Barrage Targets Ashkelon
Iron Dome intercepts five rockets fired at the city of Ashkelon. No physical injuries or damages.
Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a barrage of rockets towards the city of Ashkelon on Wednesday night.
Five of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which shoots down rockets before they hit populated areas.
Several other rockets may have exploded in open areas. There were no reports of physical injuries or damages. The “Red Alert” rocket siren was sounded prior to the explosions.
Wednesday night’s rocket attack follows several attacks on Monday. Gaza terrorists fired two rockets at the Negev Monday afternoon, several hours after the conclusion of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral.
The rockets exploded in an area north of Sderot. There were no physical injuries and no damage reported.
Two weeks ago, Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft struck several targets in Gaza, hitting a terror infrastructure site in central Gaza and three concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza. All aircraft safely returned to their bases.
The airstrikes came several hours after a rocket launched by terrorists in the Hamas-ruled territory exploded in one of the communities along the Gaza security fence.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Tuesday complained to the Security Council and to the UN Secretary-General over Monday’s rocket fire.
“While a nation grieved its fallen leader, rockets began falling a short distance from the funeral service,” wrote Prosor.
“In recent days, many people recalled the brave and decisive steps Sharon took to strengthen Israel and provide Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the opportunity to build a better future,” he added, referring to Israel’s unilateral “Disengagement” from Gaza in 2005 which was orchestrated by Sharon.
“Instead, since 2005, Gaza has become a terrorist base used by Hamas to shoot rockets, carry out kidnappings, and launch attacks on Israeli citizens,” wrote Prosor.
MC-
Do you know if the Iron Dome would repel EMP attacks?
In the US only the state of Maine is doing anything protect their grid. The rest of us just sail on, revving up for a football game. Or whatever season it is…
http://www.heritage.org/issues/missile-defense/electromagnetic-pulse-attack
Hi D
It has long been known that a simple EMP detonation above the communication hubs in the mid west would effectively put the USA (or any other country for that matter) back into enforced pastoral tranquility. I remember in my officer training at Britannia Royal Naval College discussing exactly this scenario in the ’70’s and again in looking at procurement, the process of electronic ‘hardening’ to withstand EMP was studied. The provisions of Salt II effectively forbade implematation of passive defense to populations, to ensure that MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was in effect, however the Russians were understood to have ignored these provisions.
Iron Dome is a relatively short range missile but the technology could theoretically be modified to counter an incoming ICBM single warhead at a greater range, a MIRV (multiply independently targeted re-entry vehicle) would be a particularly difficult set of target(s) anyway, but one would then also have to look at the idea of an incoming ‘stealth’ missile(s) with little if no radar signature….
There are also multiple problems associated with intercepting an incoming EMP shot, one must either intercept it in inner space, too high to cause problems, or intercept it in some way that stops a detonation in the ionosphere, this is not easy.
Anti missile missile protection could ameliorate the problem, but it only takes one warhead to get through and the USA effectively becomes two countries separated by an electronic desert filled with junk.
The lucky ones will be those with pre-90’s Volvo station wagons like mine, no computers and a carburetor, and with enough gas to get away from the kill zone to civilization, food and water….
not sure about the rest of the world but in australia this received no media coverage.