Israeli Iron Dome defence system shoots down rocket launched towards Red Sea resort



Attack on resort of Eilat follows days of tension along Egypt-Israel border

It was the first time the system has intercepted an attack in the area



Al-Qaida-inspired militant group Ansar Jerusalem claimed responsibility

The Israeli military used their Iron Dome missile defense system to successfully shoot down a rocket launched at a Red Sea resort town near the border with Egypt today, an army spokesman said.

The incident, which comes after days of tension along the Egypt-Israel border, was the first time the system has intercepted a rocket in the area around the resort of Eilat.



The al-Qaida-inspired militant group Ansar Jerusalem, based in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for launching the rocket.



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The Israeli military shot down a rocket aimed at a holiday resort on the Red Sea using their Iron Dome missile defence system (file picture)

The army said the rocket was intercepted early Tuesday and that there were no injuries. It didn't provide more details and declined to comment on the origins of the projectile.

Ansar Jerusalem, a little known group, is hostile to both Israel and Egypt and was behind an attack in August 2011 near Eilat that killed eight people.

In Cairo, Egypt's state MENA news agency quoted an unnamed security official as saying authorities could not confirm that the rocket was launched from Sinai. The report said Egyptian forces were investigating.



Most Iron Dome batteries have been deployed along Israel's border with Gaza, and the missile defense system intercepted rockets during Israel's fighting with Gaza militants in 2012.

An Israeli military spokesman said it was the first time the missile defence system has been successfully in the area of Eilat, a resort on the Red Sea

Other batteries have been placed on Israel's border with Lebanon.

Last Thursday, Israel briefly closed the Eilat airport in response to unspecified security warnings.

The following day, five suspected Islamic militants were killed in Egypt's volatile Sinai Peninsula, and a rocket launcher there was reportedly destroyed, according to Egyptian officials.



Ansar Jerusalem said four of its men were killed in the strike and blamed the deaths on Israel. The discrepancy between the group's death toll and the one offered by Egyptian authorities could not be reconciled.

Egyptian security officials attributed Friday's strike to a drone fired from the Israeli side of the border, but Israel has remained silent about the attack, likely out of concerns about exposing Egypt's military to domestic criticism over an Israeli strike on its soil.