Iron Dome anti-missile system detects rockets 4 to 70km away and will engage with interceptors to destroy targets mid-air. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) Iron Dome anti-missile system detects rockets 4 to 70km away and will engage with interceptors to destroy targets mid-air. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) Fighting between Gaza and Israel escalated Sunday following airstrikes by the two countries. As Israel pounded Gaza with rockets and mortars, the Palestinian death toll rose to 23, including two pregnant women and two babies; while four Israeli civilians were killed by Gaza attack. The bloodshed marked the first Israeli fatalities from rocket fire since the 2014 war. With Palestinian militants threatening to send rockets deeper into Israel and Israeli reinforcements massing near the Gaza frontier, the fighting showed no signs of slowing down. The outbreak of violence appears to have begun on Friday when a sniper wounded two Israeli soldiers. By Sunday, it had flared up to a display of firepower by both sides. As per the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Gazans had launched 600 projectiles in two days in their territory. The IDF also said that it’s Iron Dome aerial defence system had intercepted dozens of the incoming rockets and shot many of them. What is Iron Dome anti-missile system? The Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defence system developed by Israel to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from short distances. The system detects rockets 4 to 70 km away and will engage with interceptors to destroy targets mid-air. The Iron Dome completed its final series of testing in July 2010 and was fielded and declared operational in 2011. According to the Missile Threat website – a product of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) – the complete system costs around $100mn per battery. The initial funding and development of the Iron Dome system was provided and undertaken by Israel. According to the Missile Threat, the United States provided funding to the system starting in 2011. According to its manufacturer, Iron Dome will operate day and night, under adverse weather conditions, and can respond to multiple threats simultaneously. The Dome has three central components – detection and tracking radar, the weapon control system and missile firing unit. What the system is made up of There are 10 Iron Dome batteries that protect Israel, and each battery includes three to four stationary launchers with 20 Tamir missiles and a battlefield radar, according to aeronautics firm Raytheon, one of the collaborators on the project. Tamir missiles feature electro-optical sensors and steering fins with proximity fuze blast warheads, that explode on contact with another missile. According to Raytheon, each of the Iron Dome batteries can defend up to nearly 60 square miles, but the systems are strategically placed around cities to intercept threats headed toward populated areas and ignore those fired at uninhabited regions. This is believed to be a cost-effective approach to minimizes unnecessary interceptor launches given the cost of each missile. During a November 2012 conflict with Hamas, Israeli officials claimed that Iron Dome intercepted 85 per cent of the 400 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip that was projected to hit civilian population areas. The Israeli military on Sunday said it struck 250 targets in Gaza, including weapons storage, attack tunnels and rocket launching and production facilities. It also deployed tanks and infantry forces to the Gaza frontier, and put another brigade on standby.<doc-sep>Reuters Videos Eight people were killed Wednesday when a transit employee opened fire at a light rail yard in San Jose, California, the latest in what has become an all too common occurrence in the U.S.All eight were employees of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA.“This is a very dark moment for our city…”At a news conference, Mayor Sam Liccardo hailed these essential workers for helping the city get through the pandemic.“They were showing up every day to operate light rail and buses to ensure people could still continue to go about their lives, and they had all of the challenges of the pandemic, and they were taking risks with their own lives in doing so.”The gunman – a fellow VTA employee – took his own life, apparently when he became aware that police were closing in on him. Local media outlets identified him as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, a maintenance worker.The shooting took place just before 7 a.m. Pacific time. VTA chairman Glenn Hendricks said it occurred in the maintenance yard.“It’s just very difficult for everyone to be able to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened.”Officials said a bomb squad was searching the yard after "at least one" explosive device was found. Authorities also responded to a fire at the home of the suspect that erupted at about the same time as the shooting.The FBI is assisting in the investigation, and the White House is monitoring the situation.San Jose lies at the heart of Silicon Valley, home to some of America's biggest tech companies. "What the hell is going on in the United States of America? What the hell is wrong with us? "California Governor Gavin Newsom was visibly angry as he urged politicians from both parties to move beyond the usual platitudes that follow gun violence and finally take action. "It's time to deal with the endemic, before this pandemic, of gun violence. The pre-existing condition that somehow we sort of pushed aside last year but now has raised its ugly head again this year. And wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility, all of us, to do a little bit more and a little bit better this time.” Mass gun violence has escalated considerably as the U.S. emerged from the worst of the pandemic this spring.<doc-sep>Reuters Videos Eight people were killed Wednesday when a transit employee opened fire at a light rail yard in San Jose, California, the latest in what has become an all too common occurrence in the U.S.All eight were employees of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA.“This is a very dark moment for our city…”At a news conference, Mayor Sam Liccardo hailed these essential workers for helping the city get through the pandemic.“They were showing up every day to operate light rail and buses to ensure people could still continue to go about their lives, and they had all of the challenges of the pandemic, and they were taking risks with their own lives in doing so.”The gunman – a fellow VTA employee – took his own life, apparently when he became aware that police were closing in on him. Local media outlets identified him as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, a maintenance worker.The shooting took place just before 7 a.m. Pacific time. VTA chairman Glenn Hendricks said it occurred in the maintenance yard.“It’s just very difficult for everyone to be able to wrap their heads around and understand what has happened.”Officials said a bomb squad was searching the yard after "at least one" explosive device was found. Authorities also responded to a fire at the home of the suspect that erupted at about the same time as the shooting.The FBI is assisting in the investigation, and the White House is monitoring the situation.San Jose lies at the heart of Silicon Valley, home to some of America's biggest tech companies. "What the hell is going on in the United States of America? What the hell is wrong with us? "California Governor Gavin Newsom was visibly angry as he urged politicians from both parties to move beyond the usual platitudes that follow gun violence and finally take action. "It's time to deal with the endemic, before this pandemic, of gun violence. The pre-existing condition that somehow we sort of pushed aside last year but now has raised its ugly head again this year. And wake up to this reality and take a little damn responsibility, all of us, to do a little bit more and a little bit better this time.” Mass gun violence has escalated considerably as the U.S. emerged from the worst of the pandemic this spring.<doc-sep>
TEL AVIV – Ahead of what is expected to be an eventful but tense May, the IDF on Tuesday deployed the Iron Dome missile defense system throughout the country after a rocket was launched from Gaza the previous night. The military blamed the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad for the rocket, which landed in the sea. The next few weeks are shaping up to be a tense time for Israel, and will include the highly anticipated Eurovision song contest in Tel Aviv, Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers followed by Independence Day celebrations, the Palestinians’ “Naqba” day and the first anniversary of the hotly contested opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. May 5 also marks the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan, which has in the past brought with it heightened tensions and more terror attacks. Israel responded to the rocket attack by reducing the fishing zone around the Gaza Strip to six nautical miles — walking back a move that was made under an unofficial ceasefire agreement last month that saw the zone extended to 15 nautical miles. Palestinians in Gaza retaliated by launching more than 200 airborne incendiary devices over the border on Tuesday and Wednesday, sparking fires in southern Israel. Monday night’s rocket was “intentionally fired” by the PIJ, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said. He added that Baha Abu al-Ata, an Islamic Jihad commander of northern Gaza, gave the order to fire the rocket. Al-Ata received the order directly from the group’s leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah in Damascus, Manelis added. PIJ is hoping to thwart the ceasefire efforts by carrying out low-level attacks, the army stated. “There are dozens of countries around the world which are trying to improve the humanitarian situation in the Strip but and at the same time there is one man inside Gaza and one man outside the Strip which is trying to torpedo that,” said Manelis. The PIJ are the second largest terror group in the Gaza Strip.