Originally published on August 13, 2013
Israel shot down a rocket launched from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula at the Red Sea resort city of Eilat early on Tuesday using its Iron Dome missile interceptor system. This animation explains how the Iron Dome works.
The al-Qaeda-linked Mujahideen Shura Council said it fired the rocket at Eliat, which was packed with tourists, in retaliation for the killing of four guerrillas by an Israeli drone in Sinai on Friday.
Al Jazeera reports that the Islamist group said in a statement published on an online forum that its fighters fired the rocket at 1:00 a.m. local time. The rocket was "a quick response to the last crime by the Jews after one of their drones bombed the Sinai peninsula killing four mujahideen."
Reuters reports that in Eliat: "Air raid sirens rang out and blasts reverberated in the night skies over the resort on the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba, witnesses and Israeli news media said."
"'It's not the first time that a rocket has been fired at Eilat, but it is the first time the Iron Dome has intercepted one,'" Dani Arditi, former national security adviser told Army Radio."
"Israel briefly shut its airport in the city on Thursday citing threats from militants in Sinai involved in a standing confrontation with the Egyptian military. Israel has also boosted its rocket defenses near its southern border with Egypt."
The Iron Dome is a mobile air defense system designed to protect Israel from attacks by short range rocket and artillery.
The system, comprised of a radar unit, battle management system, and launcher, protects Israel from missiles launched mainly from the Palestinian territories.
Although expensive — each Tamir interceptor missile costs around $60,000 — it has a reported success rate of over 90 percent.
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