IDF believes Hezbollah misfired missile with 200 km range (Haaretz)

Per CNN

The Israeli miltary says an airstrike in Lebanon has destroyed a long-range Iranian missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv, The Associated Press reports.


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My guess is that Hezbollah misfired a missile that they wanted to hit Tel-Aviv thereby exposing the missile batteries position, which allowed the IDF to wipe it out.

Just a theory.

IDF believes Hezbollah misfired 'Zilzal' missile, which has 200 kilometer range

[link to www.haaretz.com]

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday said it believed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon attempted to fire an Iranian-made missile with a range of 200 km at Israel which malfunctioned and fell onto Lebanese territory.

The falling missile, described as a Zilzal, was the likely source of Lebanese reports that an Israel Defense Forces aircraft had been hit and brought down over Lebanon.

The IDF denied that one of its aircraft had been downed over Lebanon, despite Lebanese media reports. "There was no such thing," a military source said.


The IDF initially said the object seen being shot down on Hezbollah's Al Manar television station was a failed attempt to launch one of the Katyusha rockets that have battered Israel over the past six days.

Eleven people were wounded Monday afternoon when a building in the Bat Galim neighborhood of Haifa collapsed after a direct hit from a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon.

One person sustained serious wounds, one person sustained moderate wounds, and the rest were lightly hurt. Magen David Adom rescue personnel set up a field hospital next to the remains of the three-story building. The wounded were lated evacuated.

The rocket tore the front off the building, crushing cars underneath.

Medics said an initial inspection indicated no one was trapped under debris.

Israel closed its port in Haifa on Monday in the wake of the rocket attacks, the Transportation Ministry said. The port is one of the country's key shipment points.

Eight people were killed Sunday morning when a rocket struck an Israel Railways deport in Haifa.

Volleys of Katyushas also struck Tiberias and Safed on Monday afternoon, hours after six people were lightly wounded as rockets hit communities across the Galilee.

Security and medical officials in Haifa said the rockets hit away from buildings and caused only minor damage and no injuries.

Rockets also struck the southern Golan Heights for the first time, the television said.

Rockets landed earlier Monday in Kiryat Shmona, Acre, Tiberias, Talal, Julis, Abu Snan, Kafr Yassif and other towns across the north.

A rocket scored a direct hit on a house near Acre, landing just a few meters away from a couple as they slept. Three family members suffered light injuries.

Earlier Monday morning, thirteen Israel Defense Forces soldiers were hospitalized in Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya suffering smoke inhalation from a rocket landing.

A barrage of rockets landed in the Jezreel Valley in lower Galilee for the first time late Sunday. landed in the city of Afula and the surrounding communities of Upper Nazareth, Migdal Ha'emek and Givat Ela at 11 P.M. (Click here for map)

Rockets At 50 kilometers inland from the northern border, this was the longest range rocket to hit Israel. There were no reports of injuries.

For Home Front Command safety recommendations click here.

Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah may decide to use the longer range missiles in his movement's arsenal against Israel, according to Israel Defense Forces assessments.

IDF sources say that use of such weapons will depend on authorization from Iran, which has equipped Hezbollah with long-range missiles and has played a formative role in shaping the character of the current fighting. If the confrontation continues to escalate, as it appeared to have done Sunday, the chances that Nasrallah's organization will launch such missiles increases.

The army is concerned that Iranian-made Zelzal missiles, whose range is estimated to exceed 200 kilometers, may be used, thus allowing Hezbollah to target the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Intelligence information suggests that the organization has a limited number of these missiles.

The IDF on Sunday told Israelis from Tel Aviv northward to "be alert."

The command said that in the event of a rocket strike, a siren will sound, alerting the public to seek shelter inside in a protected room or an area away from doors, windows and exterior walls.

Those caught outside at the time of the siren should enter a stairwell or get close to wall or shelter and lie down. The Home Front Command also told the public to await further instruction.

Hezbollah still has at its disposal a significant arsenal "of very many rockets of all kinds," Israel Air Force Commander Major General Elyezer Shkedy told reporters at a news briefing on Sunday.

Shkedy said that thus far the IDF has struck part of Hezbollah's array of rockets and that the goal of the military campaign against Lebanon is to "deal seriously with the infrastructure that has been built over the course of years."

The IDF's chief intelligence officer, Brigadier General Yuval Helmish, said that since the end of Operation Grapes of Wrath - the IDF's offensive in south Lebanon in April 1996 - Hezbollah has amassed over 10,000 rockets, some of which have a range of over 70 kilometers, and has dispersed the missiles in towns and villages throughout south Lebanon.

Nasrallah on Sunday said the IDF offensive on Lebanon had not depleted its large stockpile of rockets, and warned that the Islamic group could strike almost anywhere in Israel.

"We will continue. We still have a lot more and we are just at the beginning," Nasrallah said in a taped televised address on Al-Manar. "We promise them surprises in (any) confrontation."

Today, CNN has a segment regarding the possibility that a missile misfired could hit holy sites.

In the background they had a picture of the Dome of the Rock/Western Wall.


Hmmmmm......