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The new weapon systems Israel is using to battle Hamas in Gaza
Late at night on October 31, three missiles were launched from the Yemeni desert along the Red Sea coastline. Their target? The sunny resort town of Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city, located at a triangle of borders between Egypt and Jordan.
Alarms went off at a secluded Israeli Air Force (IAF) base in southern Israel, and soldiers, operating in a bunker underground began collecting as much data as they could on the incoming projectile, which was making its way – at supersonic speeds – towards the Jewish state.
Based on its speed, size and trajectory, the IAF concluded that the missile was of Iranian design and had been fired from an area in Yemen, controlled by the Houthis, a rebel group supported by Iran, Israel’s arch nemesis. IAF commanders gave the green light and launched an Arrow-2 interceptor from a battery stationed somewhere in Israel. Within minutes, the two missiles met somewhere over Jordan, where parts of the Iranian missiles were later discovered.
While Israel has been using the Iron Dome missile defense system to defend against short-range rockets like the ones Hamas fires, this was the first time Israel used the Arrow, a missile defense system it began developing in the mid 1990s, in combat.A week later, Israel again used the Arrow, although this time it was the next generation variant known as the Arrow-3, which intercepted another Iranian missile fired from Yemen outside the earth’s atmosphere, pushing the boundaries once again of Israeli technology and missile defense. The interception could not have come at a better time for the manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries. On November 23, Israel finalized the first export sale of the Arrow-3 to Germany for a whopping $3.6 billion.
“This sends an important message to Iran as well because the same type of missiles that the Houthis fired are deployed in Iran and they can see that Israel can intercept them,” explained Yair Ramati, former head of the Israeli Missile Defense Organization. “It shows that the system is effective.”
The story of the Arrow and its successful use is just one regarding the new technologies that Israel has been using in the anti-Hamas war in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7 invasion and massacre of over 1,200 people.
Here is a detailed description of additional new weapons systems that the Israel Defense Forces has been using in its battle to eliminate Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Trophy
Developed By Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Israel, the Trophy is an active-protection system that can intercept incoming anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, used frequently by Hamas terror squads operating from inside the group’s tunnel network. It is installed on all Israeli Merkava Mk-4 tanks operating in Gaza; numerous videos from the past few weeks have documented its use.
“We encountered dozens of anti-tank missiles that flew toward our forces and we were able to prevent harm from all of them due to the effective systems we have,” explained Brig.-Gen. Itzik Cohen, commander of the IDF’s 162nd Division that is operating in the northern Gaza Strip.
The idea to invent an active-protection system for tanks was born in the 1970s, after the Yom Kippur War, during which IDF tanks suffered heavy losses at the hands of Egyptian anti-tank squads.
It would take years until Trophy became operational – but when it did, it was a revolution. It gave the IDF the ability to take tanks– an artifact of 20th century wars – and transform them to be relevant in asymmetric and close urban battles like those in Gaza.
Trophy operates in three stages. First, its radar detects the launching of a RPG or anti-tank missile. Its second stage, in soft-kill mode, activates electronic warfare systems aimed at causing the missile to go off course. If that fails, the system initiates the third stage and shoots off a cloud of countermeasures – metal pellets – to intercept the incoming projectile.
Trophy’s radar then interfaces with the IDF’s battle management system called Tzayad (Hunter), automatically providing the tank crew with the coordinates of the anti-tank squad that just fired the missile so it can immediately be attacked.
Eitan APC
Israel has long used armored personnel carriers but they have always been on tracks. In this Gaza war, the IDF is using for the first time the Eitan, the country’s first wheeled APC that can continue running even after hit by heavy gunfire.
Due to its 750-horsepower engine, the Eitan can reach speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour on its eight wheels, giving it all-terrain maneuvering capabilities and the ability to quickly enter and exit combat zones. The Eitan can carry 12 soldiers and comes with a remote weapon station armed with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, as well as a mounted 7.62mm machine gun.
Its first trial of fire was on October 7 during the Hamas invasion when soldiers from one of the IDF’s infantry brigades scrambled to one of the bases under attack and used the Eitan’s heavy machine guns to neutralize dozens of terrorists.
The APC was developed by the IDF Tank and APC Directorate which also manufactures the Merkava Tank. The Eitan comes with peripheral cameras equipped with day and night vision to ensure security, touch monitors and special mapping systems to quickly process routes for off road operations.
Like tanks, the Eitan also comes with an active protection system – although for this platform, the Defense Ministry chose the Iron Fist, which is developed by Elbit Systems, another Israeli defense company. Iron Fist works similarly to Trophy and is said to be capable of also intercepting suicide drones that might try to crash into vehicles.
Firefly and Iron Sting
Two new offensive weapons are the Firefly loitering munition and the Iron Sting precision-guided mortar shell.Mortar shells are used regularly by infantry in combat zones but they are historically unreliable due to their low level of precision. The Iron Sting was designed to engage fixed targets with a high degree of precision, allowing operators to use laser guidance or GPS to accurately hit their targets.
It was used in the first weeks of the war by the IDF’s Maglan Unit, an elite commando squad known for covert operations and special offensive weapons.
The mortar is launched ballistically, and when it reaches its peak altitude, two small “wings” open at its tail. The wings are connected to the Iron Sting’s internal engine and computer, and are responsible for guiding the mortar to its target. While in air, the mortar will follow the laser designation but, if it does not show due to fog or haze, it will default to the preloaded GPS coordinates.
Firefly is a different system that works as a loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone. It looks something like a stick with propellers and weighs a mere 3 kilograms, making it easy for a single soldier to carry and use. It can be rapidly deployed within seconds and an operator tracks its flight on a tablet. It includes a rugged airframe to withstand the harsh environment of urban combat and it is said to be extremely intuitive, with no special skills required to operate it.
Using an electro-optic camera at its base, Firefly – or Maoz as it is called in the IDF – has a flight time up to 30 minutes and a range up to 1,000 meters, reaching speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour.
“We see the Firefly as a building block in future potential applications for a large variety of battle arenas,” Ran Gozali, head of the Land & Naval Division of Rafael said in 2020 when the IDF purchased the system.
AI Targeting
One of the main changes in the current war has been in the use of artificial intelligence, particularly when it comes to the creation of target banks – weapons caches, command centers, rocket launchers and senior commanders – that the IDF creates for units fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This new way of fighting – combining AI with classic military operations – is giving Israel a new advantage on the modern battlefield.
If, before 2020, it would take the IDF 10 days to identify and approve 10 targets, it can now – with special classified software written by young soldiers – identify and approve 100 targets in the same amount of time.
“This changes the way we fight and gives us the ability to create targets at speeds that were previously unimaginable,” the commander of the AI target system said.
IDF officers openly admit that if in the past it had only a few hundred targets on Hamas or Hezbollah, before this war broke out on October 7 it already had in its bank several thousand. In addition, with the new AI-driven software, the military can significantly increase the number of targets it creates in real-time.
What the AI does is synergize between all of the different intelligence data that are collected by the IDF via signal intelligence (SIGINT), visual intelligence (VISINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT) allowing analysts to quickly sift through immense amounts of data and piece it together into viable attackable targets.
What this stems from is the desire to shorten what is known as the sensor-to-shooter cycle – the amount of time it takes from when an enemy target is detected by a sensor – either human or electronic – and when it is attacked.
One of the new systems to assist with this, and used by the IDF in Gaza, is Rafael’s Fire Weaver, developed in partnership with Mafat, the Defense Ministry’s R&D Directorate. The networked sensor-to-shooter system connects intelligence-gathering sensors to weapons that are in the field, allowing for unprecedented target identification and engagement.
Artificial intelligence is just one of the dramatic changes that have occurred in the IDF that will accompany the military in the years to come. Combined with the establishment of new units integrating new technology – personal drones and ground robots as examples – the IDF is becoming faster, more lethal and more technological. The world is getting a taste of some of that on the ground right now in Gaza.
The United States is deferring the removal of certain Lebanese citizens from the country, President Joe Biden said on Friday, citing humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon amid tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
The deferred designation, which lasts 18 months, allows Lebanese citizens to remain in the country with the right to work, according to a memorandum Biden sent to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated due to tensions between Hezbollah and Israel,” Biden said in the memo.
“While I remain focused on de-escalating the situation and improving humanitarian conditions, many civilians remain in danger; therefore, I am directing the deferral of removal of certain Lebanese nationals who are present in the United States.”Increased attacks since Oct.7
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hezbollah announced a “support front” with Palestinians shortly after its ally Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, triggering Israel’s military assault in Gaza.
The fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 100 civilians and more than 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to a Reuters tally, and led to levels of destruction in Lebanese border towns and villages not seen since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.
On the Israeli side, 10 Israeli civilians, a foreign agricultural worker and 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed. Tens of thousands have been evacuated from both sides of the border.
Hezbollah is an Iran-backed terrorist group and the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon.
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Preparing for war: Haifa mayor describes city’s infrastructure changes tensions in North escalate
Haifa mayor Yona Yahav spoke this past Monday with Lior Rosenfeld on Radio North 104.5FM about the escalation of the war in the North and his entry into political office amidst the security situation.
Yahav began, “I cannot speak on behalf of the North as I don’t know exactly what’s happening there. No one updates me, as if we are not the largest and most important city in the North. Tomorrow, the Home Front Command is coming to see us for the first time, and we will see what they have to say. We are doing everything to ensure that the city itself and our residents are safe and know what to do in case, God forbid, missiles fall on us. They are more accurate than those in 2006.”
Yahav also discussed the city’s preparations for a war in the North.
“We are now changing the entire method of building public structures,” Yahav said. “We are preparing them for prolonged stays. The minimum will be four consecutive days in shelters and such buildings, which require preparation. For example, installing toilets, which we don’t have today, and we have given instructions to build them in places close to where new houses are being built. This has been fully understood, and developers have begun to understand that the talk about evacuation and reconstruction has undergone drastic changes in light of the security situation. For example, road width needs to be maintained for the sake of evacuating residents on these roads. These are things that were not considered until now and must now be taken into account.”
Yahav’s plans for the success of Haifa’s future
Yahav then discussed his appeal to the transportation minister to stop the Highway 23 Carmel Tunnels’ toll charge.
“We called on the transportation minister to stop the discrimination. Haifa and the North are always discriminated against compared to central Israel, and there’s no reason for this. There are huge tunnels dug in Jerusalem that do not cost residents any money to pass through. There’s no reason why the tunnels dug in Haifa should include a toll. I speak on behalf of Haifa residents, and we are preparing to petition if we do not receive an answer.”
Regarding his entry into his mayoral role about three months ago, Yahav said, “I found a completely ruined city. They destroyed the municipality, and it’s very difficult to move things around. I don’t understand how residents sat idly by and kept quiet. We are trying to go to government offices to fix relations, to get funds, to move projects to bring in fees – and we are doing all this in a short time.
“The ministers are acting openly and with the goodwill to help. I am now waiting for the money on the table. The casino building in Bat Galim will be a luxurious hotel on the Bat Galim seashore. This neighborhood will undergo a complete transformation and will be the most beautiful neighborhood in the country. It will also be the only neighborhood facing a recognized beach. We came to make a change, and we will succeed.”
In conclusion, he touched on the issue of wild boars: “You won’t be able to follow them because soon you won’t see them anymore.”
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‘Psychological operation’: Turkey condemns FM Katz social media post depicting toddler Erdogan
Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement on Sunday condemning a social media post made by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in which Katz presented Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as a toddler on the lap of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Katz, in a Sunday post on X, wrote “Erdogan @RTErdogan finances and arms terrorist organizations of Hamas to carry out attacks and murder against Israelis. The General Security Service captured a squad of students from Bir Zeit who were employed by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey to carry out murder attacks in Israel, through training and weapons and tens of thousands of dollars provided to them.
“Erdogan turned Turkey into a state that supports terrorism and subjects Turkey to the Iranian axis of evil in the name of extreme ideology and blatant anti-Semitism.”
Katz’s comments were made in reference to a recently thwarted terror attack planned by the student Hamas cell in Bir Zeit University, north of Ramallah. The attempted attack, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said, was directed by Hamas’s base in Turkey.ארדואן @RTErdogan מממן ומחמש ארגוני טרור של החמאס לביצוע פיגועים ורצח נגד ישראלים. שירות הביטחון הכללי לכד חוליית סטודנטים מביר זית שהופעלו ע”י מפקדת החמאס בטורקיה לביצוע פיגועי רצח בישראל, באמצעות אימונים ונשק ועשרות אלפי דולרים שסופקו להם.ארדואן הפך את טורקיה למדינה תומכת טרור… pic.twitter.com/R0SCjYdngN
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 21, 2024
Turkey condemns the social media post
The Turkish ministry responded “The Israeli Foreign Minister is trying to hide Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians behind a series of lies, slander and disrespect.
“Israel’s dirty propaganda targeting Türkiye and President Erdoğan, and psychological operation attempts will not bear fruit.
“The members of the Netanyahu Government, who have killed nearly forty thousand Palestinians in Gaza and are now trying to start a regional war in order to stay in power, will be tried in international courts and held accountable for their crimes.
“Türkiye will continue to speak the truth and defend the right of the Palestinian people to live in justice and peace.”
The ministry cited data provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Additionally, Turkey has repeatedly asserted that it does not categorize Hamas as a terrorist organization – despite its western allies acknowledging it as such and its proven attacks on Israeli civilians.
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