Occupied Jerusalem: Israel will deploy tanks equipped with a miniature missile-defence system along the Gaza Strip border in the coming weeks now that Palestinian fighters are using a sophisticated, tank-piercing missile, defence officials said on Wednesday.
Violence has been escalating along the Gaza border in recent weeks, and Israel's military chief disclosed on Tuesday that the fighters from the Palestinian coastal strip had for the first time fired a Kornet missile earlier this month and that it penetrated an Israeli tank.
Gaza's Hamas rulers have not confirmed or denied possessing the missiles.
Israeli officials say the Iranian-backed Gaza fighters who once relied on crude, locally made projectiles, have steadily acquired more powerful and accurate missiles produced overseas.
The Israeli defence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters publicly, alleged the laser-guided Kornet had come from Iran.
They provided no proof and it was not clear how the missiles were delivered. Hamas, which has close ties with Iran, controls a network of smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt.
"We are talking about a massive missile, one of the most dangerous in the battlefield," Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told a parliament committee on Tuesday. He added that the missile did not explode inside the tank, and no one was hurt.
But after this attack, the military decided to move to the Gaza border dozens of tanks equipped with the Israel-developed "Trophy" system, which detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down before they reach armoured vehicles.
Production of the Trophy was stepped up after Kornet missiles fired by Lebanese Hezbollah fighter destroyed or damaged several dozens Israeli tanks during a 2006 war.
The Trophy has not yet been tried on the battlefield, though the Defence Ministry says it has been tested successfully against a variety of weapons, including Kornets.
