As tensions between Israel and Palestine are on the rise, it is only sensible to inquire if Israel has enough defense mechanism to completely protect itself and its citizens in the event of an all-out war. It seems the citizens themselves believe so. But Major General Eyal Eisenberg, head of home front command, seems to disagree, in an interview with Haaretz.
It is common knowledge that an operation by the name of Operation Pillar of Defense was launched against Israel on the 14th of November 2012 by Gaza. It has been said that, although the data is conflicting, nearly 1500 rockets were deployed onto Israeli soil by Gaza. Of these, 58 directly landed in Israel’s urban area, where population is most dense. For the first time after, Tel Aviv, second most populated city in Isreal, was hit by missiles after the Gulf War of 1991. The horrors of war are unimaginable. If we look at these statistics, we should almost be certain that thousands of Israeli civilians should have died, but the truth is different. Only 6 Israeli civilians died, and 240 were injured. The answer to this miracle was The Iron Dome. Declared operational in 27th of March 2011, it has managed to successfully intercept more than 420 rockets that were aimed for civilian areas during the eight days of the war. The war ended with a ceasefire mediated by Egypt and both parties claiming to have emerged victorious.
While The Iron Dome affords protection against short range rockets and artillery shells from a radius of 4km to 70 km, it is pretty much useless against the warheads of Hezbollah, Lebanon. Currently five Iron Dome units are operational, and if a war is announced, they may need to be taken away from defending civilians to defending key points such as military, air force bases and power plants. This may result in a huge number of casualties. In the last state of war, in November, the minimum number of casualties may have lulled the civilian population into believing that the Iron Domes are an infallible wall of protection. Major General Eisenberg warns the public not to believe so. The decisions, which have to be made in the near future, have to keep in mind the country’s well-being and not just preventing civilian casualty, if war is announced on Israel. It is advisable to all to act as if the Iron Dome did not exist. That way, even turning the Dome away from civilian defense, the casualty might be kept low.
Currently to ensure safety of the civilian lives, the number of batteries needs to be increased. Israel needed ten batteries to ensure a death toll of 6 in 2012, and now only 5 are operational. It will be another 2 years before 5 more can be obtained. While developments are under way to ensure that the maximum distance of 70 km improves to 250 km, and that the Dome can destroy missiles being fired from 2 directions, it would not be intelligent to assume that it will be able to defend lives against the 5000 superior rockets present in Hezbollah arsenal.
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