On Thursday night last week the IDF shot down a missile in the Jordan valley. Now we know that it was dangerous. The Commander of Air Defense Brigadier General Zvi Chaimovitz stated that the missile was a few tons and had a 200 kg. explosive warhead.
Though the missile shot down was aiming for Israeli planes returning from a mission in Syria rather than an Israeli town, but its debris fell in the Jordan valley from which we can surmise that had it landed without being intercepted it would have caused great damage to life and property in the Jordan valley area.
Chaimovitz clarifies: “As far as Israel’s air defense is concerned there is no difference between an anti-aircraft missile and a ground to ground missile, both are threats. The orders are clear in this situation, to neutralize and intercept every threat that endangers Israel and that’s what we did.”
He added: “The threat before us was a ballistic threat. (A threat of an armed missile landing in Israel evethough it was intended for the Israeli planes.) In such a situation there’s no place for dilemmas and question marks. The intercept central command’s decision to intercept the missile took a few fractions of a second. If tomorrow or in the future a similar incident will happen we won’t hesitate to do the same for any ballistic threat.”