Israel shoots down rocket targeting resort city Eilat

[bananas]

Source: Reuters

Israel shot down a rocket aimed at its southern resort city of Eilat early on Tuesday, blowing it up in mid air near the border with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, a military official said.

Islamist militants operating in the lawless desert peninsula said they fired the rocket at the city, which was packed with tourists, in retaliation for the killing of four guerrillas in Sinai on Friday.

Air raid sirens rang out and blasts reverberated over the hills surrounding the resort on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba, witnesses and Israeli news media said. No casualties or damage were reported.

A retired Israeli security official said it was the first time Israel's Iron Dome interceptor system had struck a missile fired at Eilat.

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Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE97C00420130813?irpc=932

[4bucksagallon]

1. Sure they did.......... I don't buy it, it's just a march toward war.

[burnodo]

2. this article should be in I/P

[freshwest]

3. IIRC, Eilat used to get shelled quite a bit, with some loss of life. The other areas mentioned here

are unfamililar to me, it doesn't seem they are in the same country. May be on land which belongs to Egypt.

Is the 'Iron Dome' just a clever name for their missile defense shield, or is it something special?

It's certainly not the same thing, but it reminds me of the 'Dome of the Rock' landmark. It's portrayed by some American religious groups. Part of their 'End Time' prophecies.

I doubt Israelis believe any of that stuff.

[7962]

5. The "Iron Dome" IS their missile defense system;

Deployed in '11 and has worked very well so far. Even has the ability to determine whether an incoming missile is headed toward a populated area or not. Developed with the US of course.
Here's the gist of it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_dome

[freshwest]

7. It looks rather low tech to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_dome

Of course, being able to figure out where a missile going at high speed, has got to use some radar or other means to determine that. It's beyond me to comprehend how they do this so quickly.

But figuring the trajectory incoming and perhaps from where it launched - that's through radar and this must be expensive.

Thanks for the information.

[leftynyc]

4. Perhaps why they closed the airport

Maybe heard of a plan to shoot a plane out of the sky.

[Lasher]

9. Yes, that's right.

Egypt tipped Israel off to just such a plot. Israel closed the airport at Eilat, then sent in a drone to attack, killing 5 militants who were preparing to launch missiles from Egyptian soil. The above article mentions four guerrillas killed in Sinai on Friday, and no doubt these were the ones - although their number is in dispute.

Earlier DU thread here

[7962]

6. Just another example of the Islamists idiocy

The article states that Israel didn't even carry out the attack on the militants, it was the Egyptian military. The Egyptian military confirms they have had several operations against militants there. But typical response anyway, "you killed our soldiers, so we'll try to kill a bunch of tourists"
Cowards.

[madrchsod]

8. the rocket must have been low tech