Itongadol.- Additional Iron Dome batteries will be rolled out in the coming days and deployed across Israel.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya\’alon spoke with the heads of the Rafael defense corporation and Israel Aircraft industries, which manufactures air defense batteries, and thanked them for the extraordinary performance of the anti-rocket system.
"Your efforts, and those of your people in this operation is very impressive, and inspirational," Ya\’alon added. "In recent days, you and your people are working with dedication, day and night, to instantly set up more Iron Dome batteries, which will go into operation during [the current] Operation Protective Edge, and will defend the Israeli people," he said.
Ya\’alon spoke to Yitzhak Gat (Chairman) and Didi Ya\’ari (CEO) of Rafael, and Rafi Maor (Chairman) and Yosi Weiss (CEO) of IAI.
"I\’d like to thank you and express my big appreciation for Iron Dome\’s activities," Ya\’alon said. "This, most importantly, saves lives, and provides us with wide-ranging opportunities when managing the campaign against Hamas. It also sends a message to states and organizations around us, which are building up enormous quantities of missiles and rockets," Ya\’alon said.
"The impressive performance of Iron Dome has strategic significance for the State of Israel and the security of its people," Ya\’alon said, asking the executives to pass on the thanks of the Israeli people to the engineers, developers, and creators of Iron Dome.
A large effort to produce more interceptor missiles is also under way, Ya\’alon added.
On Friday, Iron Dome intercepted some 15 Gazan rockets, and since Monday night, it has intercepted over 130 rockets heading to built up areas in Israel.
More than 50 rockets have fallen in Israeli territory on Friday, and over 600 since Monday, when Operation Protective Edge began. At the start of the operation, seven Iron Dome batteries were deployed across the country.