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JERUSALEM (JTA) — Several rockets were fired from Gaza at communities in southern Israel. The firings triggered at least ten different Code Red rocket warning sirens on Sunday night in Sderot and the regional councils of Hof Ashkelon and Shaar HaNegev. The Iron Dome anti-missile system reportedly intercepted several of the rockets. The Israel Defense Forces are reported to have retaliated immediately following the attack, firing on several military positions in Gaza from tanks.

It is 10:30pm, and the Religion of Peace is once more showering us with its (explosive) blessings. They are prepared to kill and maim Jews because an American Christian confirmed that Israel’s capital city for the last 3,000 years is still its capital city. As an Israeli politician put it to the BBC: Jerusalem was the capital of Israel before London was even thought of. Jews have been continuously in the land for thousands of years, and Jerusalem has always been their capital. Many have tried to throw them out, they have all failed. The history is freely available. We...

The military has announced a new capacity to protect Israel’s natural-gas drilling platforms following a successful test Monday of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system installed on a missile ship. The Israel Defense Forces tested Iron Dome’s ability to protect the country’s drilling platforms in the Mediterranean Sea. The system, constructed on the missile ship’s helicopter pad, operates in tandem with the identification systems of the navy and air force. The testing began more than a year ago as a joint project of the navy, air force and defense contractors. During the test, an Iron Dome battery was installed on the...

Britain has spent £78 million protecting the Falkland Islands with a new missile defense shield also used by Israel, Russia Today reported Thursday. The Falklands’ new Sky Sabre defense system is part of a £280-million renewal package for the islands announced by then-defense secretary Michael Fallon in 2015. The Sabre uses radar to track short-range rockets and can predict a missile’s path and blow it out of the sky before it reaches its target. The shield utilizes the same technology as Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, which has shot down hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza. It will be fully...

Four ships being manufactured in Germany that were originally slated to each contain a single Iron Dome launcher reportedly will now have two. The threat of Hezbollah rockets targeting offshore natural gas platforms has prompted the Israeli Navy to add an extra Iron Dome launcher to the Sa’ar 6 missile ships that are currently being manufactured for Israel in Germany, Defense News reported on Monday. Defense News quoted a senior Israeli naval officer as saying the change in design was prompted by Hezbollah’s arsenal of Grad rockets and longer-range projectiles. “Because of this growing threat, we’re adding another launcher on...

Israel's military said on Wednesday it had developed a version of its Iron Dome missile interceptor system that can be fired from the deck of a cruising navy ship to protect its offshore gas platforms. The augmented defense system passed a live test two weeks ago when it shot down several short-range ballistic missiles from a moving boat, said Colonel Ariel Shir, the navy's head of operational systems. Israel has boosted its naval defenses over the past decade after the discovery of sizeable natural gas deposits off its Mediterranean coast. While the biggest fields are far from shore, the gas...

Pentagon documents released on Tuesday indicate that the 2017 budget requests of the US Defense Department include a total of $145.8 million for Israeli missile defense programs, a sharp drop in financial support amid a standoff over American military aid. The aid, meant for Israel's missile interceptor programs including the short-range Iron Dome, medium-range David's Sling and Arrow ballistic missile interceptor, includes far lower figures than those recorded the year before in 2016, reports Reuters. A total of $103.8 million for Israeli cooperative programs was listed in the 2017 budget request, in a serious cut from $267.7 million in 2016....

Several Gulf nations are currently in negotiations to purchase the Israeli-made Iron Dome missile defense system, Sky News reported on Tuesday. The report said that member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council want to defend themselves against a growing "Iranian arsenal of missiles." A senior Gulf government official was quoted as saying that "If Netanyahu were not making less of a mess of things and was more like [Egypt's] Anwar Sadat, then we would be happy to buy the missiles straight from Israel." The official was apparently referring to is the Gulf states' intention to buy the systems through American contractors...

Iron Dome shoots down two Gaza rockets that were headed towards Ashkelon, hours after attack on Sderot.

IAF renews sorties over Gaza hitting dozens of targets; Palestinians report first deaths since cease-fire collapse; IDF says 50 rockets fired at Israel since 4 p.m.; Iron Dome intercepts six. Hours after rockets shattered the cease-fire and hit Gaza frontier communities, three loud explosions were heard over Tel Aviv, shortly before 11 p.m., for the first time in over a week. In total, the IDF said that 50 rockets were fired at Israel since 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday until around midnight. Six rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on...

The IDF has confirmed that Hamas fired yet another rocket from Gaza towards the Red Sea Thursday morning. It is the fourth such launch in the past two days alone, part of a series of tests by the Islamist terrorist group to improve its rocket capabilities. "Moments ago, #IDF Active Defense system identified a rocket launch from central #Gaza into the sea for the 4th time in the past 24 hours," the IDF announced on its Twitter feed earlier this morning. "Indication suggests #Gaza terrorists are experimenting in order to increase rocket launching capabilities." Since the end of Operation Protective...

A leading Iranian cleric has threatened to “raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground” if Israel attacks the country over its nuclear program. Speaking in a televised public sermon in the capital Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Movahedi-Kermani boasted that “the Sejjil ballistic missile can hit and raise to the ground any place in Israel, as well as any America base in the region.” His comments were translated from Iranian Channel 1 by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Kermani, who serves as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s official representative to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards, claimed that “none of...

RAFAEL unveils at Euronaval the C-DOME - close-in weapon system that provides a defensive shield for naval surface vessels, against multiple simultaneous ripple attacks. C-DOME suite comprises a 10-missile stack, packed in a vertical launch unit installed below deck. The system utilizes combat-proven Tamir interceptor missiles, and command and control, integrated with the ship’s surveillance and air defense radar. Photos: RAFAEL RAFAEL is extending the Iron Dome Counter-Rocket, Artillery and Mortar defense system to the maritime domain, to protect surface vessels from a wide range of threats, including ballistic trajectory and direct attack weapons. The navalized system dubbed ‘C-Dome’ is...

Barak 8 missile was successful in intercepting a missile that imitated the Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile. The Israel Navy has conducted a successful secret test of the Barak 8 missile, which is designed to defend ships from the much-vaunted Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles, reports Channel 2. The Yakhont missiles are one of the greatest threats to the Navy's vessels, mostly because of their potential use by Syria and Hezbollah. The missile flies at a very high speed – almost the speed of sound – from the moment it is launched. The test was carried out with the cooperation of an...

The Iron Dome has only sold to one foreign country, whose identity is being kept secret by both sides. Normally, an advanced new weapon system with a battle-proven success rate of 90 percent would have global defense procurement agencies on the phone in minutes. But Israel's Iron Dome rocket interceptor is yet to prove a hit with buyers abroad. In terms of operational achievement, tested on the Gaza, Lebanese and Egyptian Sinai fronts, Iron Dome is unrivaled in the arms market. However its uniqueness - developed for a particular threat in a particular place - also limits its appeal to...

Eleven lawmakers backed by liberal advocacy group J Street either voted against or refused to vote in favor of increased funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been a critical life-saver during Hamas’s latest assault on the Jewish state. Congress overwhelmingly approved an emergency increase in funding for Iron Dome this month by a vote of 395 to 8. Three of the eight who voted against the funding increase are J Street-backed lawmakers. Another eight abstained from the pro-Israel vote and also are financially supported by the group. J Street’s political action committee (PAC) has already donated...

Gaza terrorists fired a barrage of rockets towards southern Israel on Wednesday night, just moments before one ceasefire was set to end and a new one to begin. The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted one rocket over the city of Netivot. Two other rockets exploded in the Sdot Negev region. […] The latest rocket fire came just before midnight, when a 72-hour ceasefire was set to end. Moments before midnight, Israel and the Palestinian Arabs agreed to extend the 72-hour ceasefire. …

As Israeli operations against Hamas wind down, here are seven insights into the month-long conflict: Missile shield: The superb performance of Iron Dome, the protective system that shot down nearly every Hamas rocket threatening life or property, has major military implications for Israel and the world. Its success signals that “Star Wars” (as opponents maliciously dubbed it upon introduction in 1983) can indeed provide protection from short-range and also presumably from long-range rockets and missiles, potentially changing the future of warfare. Tunnels: Tunneling behind enemy lines is hardly a new tactic; historically, it has had success, such as the 1917...

An Israeli commander claimed that hundreds of Israeli lives were saved recently when “the hand of God” stopped a Hamas rocket. The Israeli commander described the attack on a Hebrew-language website: A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died. We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This...

Threats: As a somber anniversary nears, "proportional response" has replaced "victory" in the lexicon of war. But no nation facing an existential threat should apologize for winning or for saving the lives of its own people. The other day Navi Pillay, the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, after a meeting of the U.N.'s Geneva-based Human Rights Council, said that Israel, despite dropping leaflets, dummy bombs and even sending text messages and using social media to warn citizens in Gaza, was not doing enough to protect civilians — and "international law has been violated, in a manner that could...