A dramatic photo from the Gaza strip taken in the early hours of Friday morning looks like something out of a Marvel film. On the right, rockets fly from Gaza. The gentle trajectory of their parabolic curves shouldn’t fool anyone: these are unguided explosives travelling at hundreds of miles an hour towards an Israeli town. On the left, each one snaking a unique, winding path, interceptors from Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system shoot up to meet the missiles.
In 2001, when Hamas started firing rockets from Gaza into Israel (and, at that time, the still-extant Israeli settlements in Gaza), the terrorist organisation introduced a new weapon that would change the strategic picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Initially small and ultra short range, the rockets improved as Palestinian terror groups became more expert at designing and building them. After Israel withdrew settlements from Gaza in 2005, rocket fire became a serious threat to a large and ever-growing chunk of the country.
Iron Dome, Israel’s purely defensive anti-rocket system, significantly neutralised this threat.
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