It has recently been revealed that at least one of the nearly-500 rockets fired at Israel from Gaza was an advanced Falaq-2 manufactured by Iran. The Falaq-2 is a medium-range surface-to-surface missile designed to attack defense installations including Iron Dome systems used by Israel to defend cities against rockets.
Without naming the particular rocket, the Islamic Jihad in Gaza said in its announcement after the rocket barrage that it had successfully hit Ashkelon on Tuesday with a new medium-range rocket in response to orders from Iran. The rocket strike in Ashkelon killed one man, a Palestinian from the Hebron area, and injured two women.
With two rockets mounted on a small vehicle or jeep, the Flaq-2 has a range of about 7 miles and holds about 130 pounds of explosive.
This new development, linking Iran directly to the rocket attack on Israel, was revealed in Debka, an Israeli military intelligence website. Debka stated several questions now facing the Israeli security establishment in the wake of this revelation:
- How was the Iranian rocket smuggled into the Palestinian enclave?
- Why didn’t the IDF destroy the Falaq-2 stores in Gaza as soon as they were delivered – or later?
- Why didn’t the IDF warn the people living on the Gaza border that their homes faced this deadly threat?
- Why didn’t the IDF knock out the teams launching it?
- Why does Israel refrain from hitting Iranian targets in the region in retaliation?
- Is this why Avigdor Lieberman after quitting as defense minister, warned local leaders on the Gaza border that within a year the threat from Hamas and Jihad would be equal to that of Hizballah?
Israel accused Iran of orchestrating the massive barrage on Israeli urban centers after the attack. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Hamas, which is funded by Iran, coordinated the attack with Iran’s al-Quds Revolutionary Guard Corps, which also has forces in Syria and supplies rockets to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
