Iron Dome put to work: Due to recent escalation on the Gaza Strip border the IDF plans to activate a portable anti-missile system on Sunday in order to intercept short-range rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza.

The IDF will also check whether the system can work in accordance with the alarm systems. The system's installation may be postponed by a day or two.

The Iron Dome system can protect an area as big as 10X10 km from rockets and mortar shells threatening to explode in communities or on vital structures. The system can calculate the trajectory of the rockets and avoid intercepting rockets which are about to land in open areas. However, the Iron Dome cannot intercept objects fired from a distance shorter than 1.737 miles.





Iron Dome

Last month, the members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by former Defense Minister Amir Peretz, decided the first Iron Dome batteries should immediately be positioned in the south.

The committee also ruled that in the next five years the IDF must equip itself with 13 batteries, costing about NIS 9 billion ($2.54 billion).