August 20, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel installed an Iron Dome anti-missile system battery outside of Eilat days after a long-range rocket attack on the city.

The Iron Dome battery was moved into place Sunday, two days after fragments of a Grad rocket were found north of Eilat.

It is believed to be one of two rockets fired from the Sinai into the popular resort town last week.

The IDF told Israeli media that the battery was put in place near Eilat in order to calibrate itself to the area.

The Salafi Front, an Islamist terror group operating in the Sinai, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets into southern Israel, which caused two loud explosions on the night of Aug. 15. The group also said it perpetrated more than a dozen attacks on the gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel, which has been blown up at least 14 times in the Sinai since February 2011.

Rockets have been fired at Eilat and its environs from the Sinai several times in the past two years.
 

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