Israel uses ‘David’s Sling’ defence system to shoot down rockets from Gaza for first time
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Thursday, as Israel relied on its new “David’s Sling” air defence system to intercept fire.
As the fighting between Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Israel entered its fourth day, Gaza militants launched a barrage of rockets towards the holy city, triggering air raid sirens on the outskirts.
Some missiles also triggered air raid alerts in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where footage showed people taking cover on roads.
Two rockets launched at Jerusalem were intercepted by Israel’s medium-range David’s Sling which had also successfully intercepted a rocket for the first time the previous day. Though introduced in Israel in 2017, the system has only been used once before in an attempt to intercept rockets from Syria in 2018.
Israeli media reports said the government had frozen Egypt-brokered ceasefire talks and planned to launch a “major response” to the attack on Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its undivided capital.
Since the fighting broke out on Tuesday, 31 Palestinians – among them six children and three women – and one Israeli civilian have been killed. The escalation was triggered by a round of surprise Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip which killed three Islamic Jihad commanders, their wives, children and several other civilians.
Islamic Jihad responded with rocket fire on southern and central Israel, which in turn led to prolonged exchanges of air strikes and rockets between the two sides through the week, with occasional lulls in violence.
The Israeli military for the first time apologised for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a revered Palestinian correspondent for al-Jazeera who was shot dead while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank one year ago.
The 51-year-old, who was shot in the head by a suspected Israeli sniper, had been wearing a clearly marked “Press” jacket and helmet while covering the raid in Jenin.
As one of the most well-known journalists in the Arab world after decades of reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, her death caused shock and outrage across the Middle East.
Ms Abu Akleh’s colleagues and relatives said there was clear evidence she was shot by an Israeli soldier and that there had been no accountability for her death. The Israeli military has only admitted to a “high probability” of its forces unintentionally firing the fatal shots. The case is reportedly being investigated by the FBI as she was also an American citizen.
“I think it’s an opportunity for me to say here that we are very sorry for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh,” Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in an interview with CNN that coincided with the first anniversary of her death.
“She was a journalist, a very established journalist. In Israel we value our democracy and in a democracy we see high value in journalism and in a free press. We want journalists to feel safe in Israel, especially in war time, even if they criticise us.”
