(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Uzi Rubin - In the escalation that precipitated the 2014 Gaza War and during the war, Israel was subjected to the fiercest and longest-reaching rocket assault in its history. More than 4,500 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza during the fighting. The rocket fire was neither silenced nor reduced in intensity until an agreed ceasefire ended the fighting. The nine Iron Dome batteries that protected most of Israel's civilian areas shot down nine out of every ten rockets aimed at their defended areas. Patriot batteries shot down Palestinian armed UAVs. Therefore, the casualties and damage from the Gaza rockets were significantly less than from the Hizbullah rocket fire in the 2006 Lebanon War. Israel's active defenses allowed most Israelis in the threatened localities to continue their daily lives with minimal interruptions.
2015-02-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive