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FromPatrick Mayer
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Israel is under attack by Hamas and Hezbollah despite having nuclear weapons. The Jericho-3 missile reportedly has a range as far away as Iran.
Jerusalem – The political actors in the war in Israel probably extend far beyond the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. The emirate of Qatar, which hosted the controversial 2022 World Cup, is considered a sponsor of the radical Islamist Palestinian Hamas, which carried out treacherous massacres such as those in the Israeli Kibbutz Kfar Azza.
Hamas and Hezbollah attack: Israel has nuclear warheads
Iran, meanwhile, is the supporter of the radical Islamist Shiite Hezbollah, which repeatedly attacks northern Israel from southern Lebanon. Iran and Israel are considered arch-enemies, while the USA is also hostile to Iran, but at the same time needs Qatar (Hamas’ investor) as an important geopolitical partner in the Middle East.
Not least because the large Al Udeid Air Base of the US Air Force and the British Royal Air Force is located there. In addition, in this already tricky situation, Israel has a rumored 90 nuclear warheads. And still gets attacked.
The civilian Shavit rocket: According to unconfirmed information, it is said to be similar to Israel’s Jericho rockets. (symbolic photo)
© IMAGO/Xinhua
While the Israeli army has deployed Merkava battle tanks, Namer infantry fighting vehicles and M113 personnel carriers around Gaza, one type of missile is (in theory) intended to serve as a nuclear deterrent launcher: the Jericho. According to American news magazine Newsweek called on Israeli MP Revital “Tally” Gotliv to use a “doomsday weapon” against Gaza. Instead of immense ground troops, which, according to experts, can also lead to major losses on the Israeli side.
Israel’s Jericho rocket: carrier rocket for the country’s nuclear warheads
Gotliv specifically mentioned Jericho, which was named after the biblical city. But: What is hidden behind Jericho? It is the name for the ballistic missile program that began back in the 1960s. First with Israeli-French cooperation, finally in cooperation with South Africa. The Israeli armed forces received the first Jericho-1 rockets in 1973, but they have now been decommissioned. The Jericho 2 rockets followed in the early 1990s, which had a longer range of 1,500 kilometers instead of the previous 500 kilometers.
Likud Member of the Israeli Knesset Revital ‘Tally’ Gotliv has called on occupation forces to use a “Doomsday weapon” against Gaza, in what many believe to mean a nuclear warhead https://t.co/me6Nen23r8
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) October 11, 2023
And the unconfirmed estimates suggest that they can carry nuclear warheads with a higher weight. And therefore also with greater destructive power. As Associate Fellow for Strategy, Technology and Arms Control, Mark Fitzpatrick, wrote in a post for The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) wrote, there are said to have been test launches for a Jericho 3 rocket in 2008, 2011, 2013, 2019 and 2020.
The American one Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) assumes that the modified rocket was put into service in 2011. This cannot be verified independently. The country with around 9.4 million inhabitants has kept its Jericho program a huge secret for decades.
Israel’s Jericho missile: length, range, payload of warheads
Surname: | Jericho 3 (Luz YA-4) |
Length: | 15.50 m |
Hull diameter: | 1.56 m |
Weight: | 29,000kg |
Payload (warhead weight): | 750 – 1300 kg |
Range: | 4800 to 6500 kilometers |
Israeli weapons expert Isaac Ben-Israel, who was in charge of the Israel Space Agency, said Newsweek in a 2012 article published by the Nuclear Threat Initiative said: “Anyone can do math. We can reach any point in the world with a rocket engine.” Specifically: The Jericho 3 is supposed to be loud Newsweek GPS-controlled have a range of between 4,800 and 6,500 kilometers. A fictitious example: Tehran, the capital of Iran, is around 1,574 kilometers from the Israeli air force base Sdot Micha near the settlement of Zekharaia, where the rockets are loud IISS stored in bombproof underground shelters. The village is located less than 40 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem, where the parliament (the Knesset) meets.
Israel’s Jericho rocket: three boosts enable long range
At 15.5 meters, the Jericho 3 will be about a meter longer than the Jericho 2 and will be able to carry warheads weighing 1,300 kilograms (instead of the previous 1,000 kilograms). During flight, three bursts are fired one after the other, which is intended to enable the long range. With Jericho 2 there were two more spurts.
By the way: The Gaza Strip is only about 40 kilometers long and between six and 14 kilometers wide. A nuclear explosion there could transport the highly dangerous radiation to Israel itself in no time. Gotliv’s brutal proposal should be classified as polemical. (pm)
Category list image: © IMAGO / Xinhua
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