In this file photo dated May 14, 2021, the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system (left) intercepts rockets (right) fired by the Hamas movement towards southern Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip as seen in the sky above the Gaza Strip overnight. (ANAS BABA / AFP)
JERUSALEM – Israel will start using a laser-based system to intercept missiles within a year, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Tuesday.
"Within about a year, the IDF (Israel Defense Force) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally," Bennett told the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli security think tank.
The system will be deployed first in southern Israel, where communities have been under recurring rocket fire launched by Gaza Strip's ruler Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups
The system will be deployed first in southern Israel, where communities have been under recurring rocket fire launched by Gaza Strip's ruler Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups.
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The system will later be installed in other parts of the country, the prime minister added.
"This will allow us, in the medium to long term, to cover Israel in a wall of lasers defending us from missiles, rockets, drones and other threats," Bennett said.
"It will effectively take away the strongest card the enemy has been against us," he added.
The laser system would be an addition to Israel's multi-layered defense doctrine, which is composed of four operational layers: the short- to medium-range anti-rocket Iron Dome system, the medium-to-long-range David's Sling aerial defense system, and the long-range anti-missile Arrow system.
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