More than 4,000 rockets were launched from Palestine’s Gaza Strip toward Israel since tensions between the two sides escalated, the Israeli army said on Thursday.
Of the 4,000 rockets fired, 610 of them fell inside the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army’s press service added.“
As of 07.00 a.m. (04:00 GMT), since the start of Operation Guardian of the Walls, around 4,070 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, of which 610 launches were unsuccessful, the rockets fell inside the Gaza Strip,” the army said.
The percentage of rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system stands at approximate 90 per cent, the military added.
The tensions between Israel and the Gaza Strip-based Hamas Islamist movement rose late on May 10.
According to the latest data, 12 people were killed and over 50 people were seriously injured in Israel, while the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes has reached 227, including 64 children.
The iron dome defense system is a mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.
The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to 70 kilometres (43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.
Iron Dome was declared operational and initially deployed on March 27, 2011 near Beersheba.
On April 7, 2011, the system successfully intercepted a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza for the first time.
On March 10, 2012, The Jerusalem Post reported that the system shot down 90 per cent of rockets launched from Gaza that would have landed in populated areas.
In late 2012 Israel said that it hoped to increase the range of Iron Dome’s interceptions, from a maximum of 70 kilometres (43 mi) to 250 kilometres (160 mi) and make it more versatile so that it could intercept rockets coming from two directions simultaneously. (Sputnik/NAN)
