‘Surface-to-air missile fired at IAF over Gaza’
10/16/2012 22:20
The IDF has refused to officially comment on reports that Palestinian terrorists
fired a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile at an IAF helicopter over Gaza
last week.
According to the report, which appeared in Yediot Aharonot on
Tuesday, the missile – identified as the low-altitude Strela SA-7 – missed its
target. It was the first known attempt to bring down an IAF craft using advanced
missiles in Gaza.
“Certainly, the threat of anti-aircraft missiles is a
serious worry, but it won’t disrupt the air force’s activities over Gaza,”
terrorism expert Yoram Schweitzer, of the Institute for National Security
Studies, told The Jerusalem Post.
Schweitzer, who has served as
consultant on counterterror strategies to the Prime Minister’s Office and the
Defense Ministry, noted that the period of instability rocking the Middle East
has allowed terrorists to smuggle strategic weapons into the Gaza Strip and the
Sinai Peninsula.