Iron Dome Commander: ‘Hezbollah Is Improving Day by Day; So Are We’

September 25, 2024

by: Elisha Ben Kimon ~ Ynetnews

Wednesday, 25 September 2024 | As winds of war blow on the northern border, those responsible for Israel’s defense and enabling the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] to strike aggressively are the Iron Dome soldiers, intercepting dozens and hundreds of munitions fired toward Israel from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.

“When I hear sirens, I get into alert mode and know it’s my time to act,” Capt. M., commander of an Iron Dome battery in the north, told Ynetnews on Monday.

At 26 years old, she carries the heavy responsibility of deciding what and where to intercept. “Each shift is managed by several roles, including interceptors and technicians monitoring the screens,” she explained.

“I sit in the central interception supervision vehicle, where we detect the targets. The moment a launch toward Israel is located, we identify the targets and decide what to do with them within seconds—either intercept them or let them fall according to policy. It’s a heavy responsibility and takes rapid decision-making,” she added.

Capt. M. said [she] will never forget the night of August 25, when Hezbollah attacked the north following a preemptive strike against them. “We prepared for their fire and manned our strongest shift,” she recalled.

“After a few hours in the vehicle, it began. Suddenly, we received a barrage image unlike anything we’d ever seen before, with an enormous number of missiles and drones. The northern front hadn’t seen such a barrage in years. And everyone worked quietly, each person focused on their target,” she recounted.

Capt. M.’s twin brother serves as an IDF drone operator. She enlisted in 2017 as an Israeli Air Force’s Air Defense Command soldier and went through a long training process. She was a platoon commander for military recruits and then a battery operations officer, including during Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021.

After several roles, she arrived in the north and has been commanding the Gideon Iron Dome battery for four months. “We’re preparing for various challenges on the northern front, from precise rocket and cruise missile targets to drones. It’s a daily threat. Hezbollah is improving day by day, and so are we.”

Air defense soldiers have faced criticism, some justified, for not having a comprehensive response to Hezbollah’s short-range drones which sometimes explode without warning and are considered particularly deadly.

“As new capabilities are introduced to the systems during the fighting, we improve in this area. The Iron Dome is built with defense layers but it’s important to clarify — we won’t be 100% accurate at all times,” Capt. M. said.

“In the end, we do our best to protect civilians,” she continued. “Hezbollah’s evolving threat, their quantities and the quality of the targets are significant. We’ve been at war for 11 months, with regular and reserve personnel working around the clock and we have very high success rates. Still, civilian adherence to guidelines is key to the defense systems’ success.”

Posted on September 25, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by Ynetnews on September 23, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo License: Wikimedia