Supporters of the tough measures against Hamas themselves suggest that the Israeli army use Jericho missile systems with nuclear warheads in Gaza, Hrot reports. They justify this step in the same way as the Americans attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Israeli Knesset member from the ruling Likud party, Revital Gotliv, believes that the Jewish state should even use nuclear weapons against the terrorist organization Hamas. More precisely, we are talking about the Jericho missile systems. Gotliv justifies the use of nuclear weapons in the same way as the Americans did when they struck the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945: this way it will be possible to minimize losses among their own soldiers.
The Israeli army should use all the weapons it has in its arsenal against the Palestinian Hamas movement and "wipe off the face of the earth" the entire Gaza Strip, as Gotliv put it. She does not like that members of a terrorist organization ridicule the whole of Israel with their actions.
Her call to use the "Doomsday weapon" is a response to the largest terrorist attack on the territory of Israel since its creation in 1948. During the brutal massacres, Hamas members killed 1,300 Israelis, and at least 150 more were abducted and are in unidentified locations in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the terrorists killed defenseless children and women.
This is not the first time Gotliv has called for the use of Jericho ballistic missiles. Israel has been developing this system since the 60s of the twentieth century in cooperation with the French defense company Dessault. After 1969, the French company withdrew from the program, and the Israelis continued to work independently so that their missiles could hit even remote cities of neighboring Arab states, including Cairo and Tehran. The first sample of Jericho-1 missiles was ready in 1973, when the Yom Kippur War broke out.
The worst-case scenario is possible
"Why would Israel develop a medium-range ballistic missile if its declared adversaries, Iran and several Arab states, are much closer?" — Mark Fitzpatrick from the British analytical center "International Institute for Strategic Studies" wondered in 2021.
According to him, Tel Aviv has always taken into account the worst-case scenario and unpredictable events for which the Jewish state, surrounded by Arab countries, should be ready. Therefore, Israel has always covertly wanted to have nuclear weapons.
The Israeli left-wing publication Haaretz sharply criticized the Israeli army, which was not ready enough to protect people in kibbutzim near the border with the Gaza Strip, as well as participants of a music festival. Therefore, the publication called on Likud leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
Back in 2019, Haaretz reported that Israel had tested an upgraded version of the Jericho with a more efficient rocket engine. The Stockholm Peace Research Institute reports that the Jewish state has 80 nuclear warheads. Basically, Israel needs them for nuclear deterrence of Iran, which is also trying to get nuclear weapons. Israel was able to get the first warheads back in 1966.
The Jericho -1 missiles were decommissioned in the 90s of the twentieth century. Their range reached 500 kilometers, and the warhead — 500 kilograms. "Jericho – 2" was developed since the 70s of the last century and had a range of 1500 — 3500 kilometers.
The current Jericho–3 system, according to the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies, was tested in 2008 and has been in service with the Israeli army since 2011. The warhead of the missile weighs 750 kilograms, and the range reaches 6,500 kilometers. Even 15 years ago, Israeli weapons expert Isaac Ben-Israel said that Israel is capable of effectively hitting almost any place in the world with its missiles.
Author: František Novák