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The IDF is proud of the improvement in the deterrence system, but the real picture is much sadder | Israel Today

2021-11-02T21:27:24.660Z


The home front exercise is at its peak, and the army is very proud of the improvement in the warning. Only for 42% of normal MMD • Iron Dome? Can not fully defend against more than 1,000 rockets a day • Strategic infrastructure protection is expected to be completed next year


The national home front exercise that takes place this week will culminate tomorrow (Wednesday) in the practice of the warning system in some localities around the country.

The alarms will be sounded between 10:00 and 11:00 and 19: 00-18: 00, especially in localities where the defense time is different and in cities that have been split into several warning areas.

Although the IDF is proud of the significant improvement in the warning system in recent years and the reduction of polygons so that every time a rocket is fired, fewer civilians will have to enter protected areas, but the sad truth is that today, more than 15 years since the Second Lebanon War, 30% of Israelis have no protection. In case of missile fall, and only 42% of citizens have standard security measures in their homes.

About 20% of the citizens of the State of Israel have shared private shelters, usually on the lower floor of the building where they live, and another 10% are considered to have protection shelters, since there are public shelters near their homes.

But it is no big secret that the same shelters are always in good condition and worthy of stay in time of war, and the big problem is precisely in the private shelters, many of which are neglected or are now used for other purposes.

Soldiers participate in the national chicken exercise at Kibbutz Dafna, Photo: Eyal Margolin - Ginny

According to all estimates, it is clear that the Third Lebanon War, or the First Northern War, will not even be similar to the Second Lebanon War, and certainly not to the recent operations in Gaza, in which the Israeli public became accustomed to active defense and high interception rates of 90% of Iron Dome fighters. .

In light of Hezbollah's arsenal of weapons, the days of fighting in the next round will be more difficult than we are used to. It is estimated that the average number of rockets fired into Israel each day will be more than 1,000 or 1,500 - about a third of them to the center. Of heavy mortar bombs, aimed at hitting near-fence localities on a very large scale, as well as several dozen precise rockets that greatly bother the heads of the defense establishment, as they can hit high-precision national infrastructure and strategic sites in the State of Israel.

Iron Dome Battery, Photo: Coco


It should be emphasized that the "Iron Dome" system is not unlimited, and in order to maintain enough interceptor missiles and protect strategic sites, it is not inconceivable that the State of Israel will adopt a policy of prioritization and will not protect all civilian settlements as in operations in the south.

But the really disturbing gaps concern the settlements near the fence, the ones that in the outline of northern fighting will absorb most of the fire.

According to the defense establishment, a budget of about half a billion shekels is required to build a condensed security guard suitable for protection against the threat in only 21 fenced-in localities that are up to 1 km from the border. This week, after years of bureaucracy and procrastination, it was implemented. A protection plan that has been allocated only NIS 100 million out of the half a billion shekels it needs, and it is estimated that when the budget law is passed for next year, an additional NIS 250 million will be allocated for the project.

The solution: Allocate resources

In order to reasonably protect the localities up to 9 km from the northern border, and add additional protection components to localities up to 40 km from the border, a budget of at least NIS 5 billion is required, and at least at the moment, unfortunately, this does not seem to be a priority. Of the Government of Israel.

Even in the south of the country, the situation is not alarming.

In light of the heavy threat from the Gaza Strip, all the surrounding settlements up to 7 km from the border were protected, but as we saw in Operation Wall Guard, Ashkelon also hijacked hundreds of rockets, and there are many hundreds of housing units without protected space. D. Each apartment in these cities is astronomical, and the Home Front Command is currently proposing to go for a cheaper intermediate solution, of protecting the stairwells in shared buildings.

Iron Dome Interception (Archive), Photo: Reuters

The Home Front Command believes that the bureaucracy of building construction should also be shortened, that the protection of buildings should be involved with a neighborhood restoration project of the Ministry of Construction and Housing, and that If the state does not put a deep hand in its pocket, and allocate very large sums, the protection gaps throughout the country will remain in the State of Israel for many years to come.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-11-02

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