A number of Iron Dome missile defense batteries were deployed in central Israel on Monday by the Israeli army amid heightened tensions with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the army blew up the group’s resistance tunnel last month.
The Israeli occupation army confirmed the anti-missile systems had been installed in central Israel. On Sunday Iron Dome batteries were spotted on the outskirts of Occupied Jerusalem allegedly in anticipation of retaliation attacks by the Palestinian resistance.
The occupation army claimed that the Iron Dome system which is designed to shoot down short-range rockets and in some cases mortars was deployed to counter the threats made by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance group which has vowed to avenge its members killed in the tunnel blast.
Over recent days the Israeli army threatened that any response by the Islamic Jihad will be met with a powerful and determined Israeli aggression not only against the Jihad but also against Hamas.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad responded to the threats saying the Israeli threats against its leaders constituted “an act of war” and vowing to continue to try to carry out a revenge attack against Israel.
Islamic Jihad said it would not back down on its right to retaliate against Israel for the deadly strike which took away the lives of 12 members of the group’s militants and of Hamas’s armed wing.
An Israeli military analyst dubbed the wrangle “a war of nerves” saying at a time when the Israeli army has been pressuring the Islamic Jihad to backtrack on retaliation the latter sees revenge as the most urgent of all steps.
