Israel Deploys New Missile Tracker Against Hamas

NEW YORK -- In yet another signal that the war with Hamas may be intensifying, Israeli media are reporting that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have deployed an experimental new rocket tracking tracking system in the port city of Ashkelon, near the Gaza border.

The IAI MC4 is now in place and operational in Ashkelon reports The Jerusalem Post.

The MC4, a new product of Israel Aerospace Industries, is an outgrowth of the Arrow anti-missile system jointly developed by Israel and the Pentagon.

The Arrow, a successor to the Patriot, was designed as part of President Reagan's Star Wars anti-missile defense originally designed to counter Soviet ICBMs.

While both the Patriot and the Arrow were designed to intercept and neutralize incoming ballistic missiles, the MC4 is designed to counter much smaller missiles such as 122mm ammunitions including Russi an made Katyusha's.

The smaller missiles are quickly launched and have a much more restricted range, giving the attacker the ability to rapidly move to new locations and minimize any counter-measures.

Tracking such highly mobile launch sites had been very difficult as Israel experienced in fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.


As a result of the Lebanese war, IAI began a crash program to counter such mini-missiles which caused havoc in Haifa in 2006 and now in the Ashdod-Ashkelon region.

According to The Post, the MC4 had been deployed for field testing in Ashkelon last week, but now has been activated for full operation.

Built by the Malam Missile and Space Factory of IAI, the MC4 uses state-of-the-art technology including GPS and camera sensors to scan areas where rocket launch sites may be suspected.

Once a launch is detected, the MC4 pinpoints the site and projected flight path. It also has the ability to back track launches already in progress.

According to Israeli sources, the MC4 gives the IDF the ability to hit rocket launch sites in a manner that did not exist during the Lebanese war.

The MC4 is said to have the ability to triangulate the coordinates of launch sites within a minute of a firing, giving the IDF a new opportunity to respond to "hit and run" missile attacks. It can also pinpoint targets hit, giving emergency medical teams quicker response times.

Neither the US nor Russia currently have such systems in their arsenals say military sources.

Source : http://www.newsmax.com/

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Technology Delivers War Propaganda to Gaza, Israeli Citizens

To the suicide vest, the rocket and the battering ram, those longtime staples of conflict in the Middle East, add the cell phone.

Both sides in the Gaza war have employed cell phones as a form of psychological warfare, among other purposes -- part of a trend toward using new media in a century-old conflict.

Hagar Mizrachi, a 25-year-old Israeli, recently received a text message that said rocket attacks on all of Israel's cities were imminent. The message was signed "Hamas" and the sender name was listed as "Qassam.hamm," he said. Qassams are rockets that Hamas militants have been firing from Gaza into southern Israel. "It's unnerving to receive something like that," said Mizrachi, an editor at an online news service. "It feels like they've invaded you."


Effective Tool, Poor Grammar

Yaniv Levyatan, a psychological warfare expert at the University of Haifa, said cell phones are a natural tool because soldiers and militants are generally young and have grown up using them. Israel and Gaza are small, densely populated areas blanketed by wireless service, making the phones' use even more effective, he said.

Levyatan said the messages from Hamas to Israeli cell phones were generally crude and not targeted very well. "The Hebrew was terrible," he said.

Palestinian phone users report receiving calls on both cell phones and land lines, encouraging them to turn in Hamas militants or warning them their home is about to be bombed, said Amman Aker, head of the Palestinian mobile phone company Jawwal, which operates in Gaza.

"We can't do anything about it," Aker said. He said the calls come in from international carriers and cannot be traced or blocked.

Israeli officials say they are doing Palestinians a service by advising them of impending attacks so civilians can get out of a building.

"We have to do what we can to warn civilians," said Maj. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli military spokesperson. Dallal declined to discuss how the Israeli military obtains cell phone numbers in Gaza. Land-line phone numbers here are generally available in phone books.
Leave Them Behind

Jonathan Fighel, a retired Israeli colonel at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, based near Tel Aviv, said it's relatively simple for both sides to use cell phones and land lines to spread their messages. He compared the technology to that used by telemarketers around the world, who obtain lists of phone numbers and then use computers to place automatic calls.

This isn't the first war in which cell phones have been a relevant issue for Israel. During the war in Lebanon in 2006, Israeli soldiers commonly tucked their phones into their cargo pockets when they went onto the battlefield and regularly used them to call home or keep in touch with friends.

The constant phone calls from the field became a security issue since Hezbollah militants had the capacity to listen in on conversations. "We know it was common in Lebanon that the bad guys were eavesdropping on cell phones," said Shlomo Brom, a retired Israeli brigadier general. In Gaza, soldiers have been ordered to leave their phones at their base, Dallal said.

The cell phone battles are part of an aggressive effort by both sides to use technology to shape the world's perception of the Gaza war. Except for occasional news media tours set up by the Israeli military, foreign journalists have been prevented from reporting from the battlefield.
Other Techy Tools

The Israeli Defense Forces started a YouTube channel shortly after the conflict began Dec. 27. It was the brainchild of a couple of soldiers and has attracted millions of viewers, said Maj. Avital Leibovich, a military spokesperson. The Israeli military posts videos of precision airstrikes and ground forces operating in Gaza. "We want the world to see the conflict from our point of view," Leibovich said.

YouTube allows the Israeli military to communicate directly with the audience, without the filter of traditional news media. "We don't have a mediator here," Leibovich said.

Hamas has a Web presence and has continued to operate a television station called Al-Aqsa. Israel's military has occasionally cut into broadcasts of the Hamas channel to urge the population to turn against militants.

On Jan. 3, Israel's Channel 10 News aired a video it said appeared that day on Al-Aqsa, featuring mug shots of Hamas leaders who had been killed and a ticking clock. "Hamas, your time is running out" flashes across the screen.

Israeli military officials have declined to discuss the reports -- or whether they use phone calls for other means, such as deceiving militants.

"All I can say is we call them, especially when we're going to target a building," Dallal said.

Source : http://www.technewsworld.com/

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