Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military has been preparing for a rocket war against cities in the Jewish state.

The military has been organizing teams that could respond to any missile or rocket attack on Israeli cities amid a war with Iran or its proxies.

Officers said the teams consisted of reservists trained to identify the rocket and its damage.

“All of our soldiers have a background in this field,” Maj. Avi Bruskin, the commander of the Army’s Central District Observation Unit, said.

Officers said the army has assigned two such units to each district. They said most of the reservists, nearly half of them women, stemmed from the Combat Intelligence Corps.

“We have a very close family-like atmosphere here,” Bruskin said.

The military formed the units amid an assessment that Israel’s missile and rocket defense batteries would not be able to stop many of the thousands of weapons fired toward the Jewish state in any war with Iran or its proxies. The military has assessed that the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah alone has deployed 100,000 missile and rockets, many of them fitted with guidance systems.

Officers said the new units would direct military and police teams to
the rocket strike. They said the Army has assigned teams, protected against
chemical or biological weapons, in the tallest building in every Israeli
city. The teams holds an annual exercise and were deployed during alerts of
a major missile strike.

Bruskin said each unit uses the Atlason system, which combines
binoculars with a screen, laser and global positioning system. He said the
system was also equipped with night vision and could use the location of the
moon and the stars as a “natural GPS.”

“Most of the time we don’t even use the Atlason system, because we know
the area so well, but it’s still good to have it,” Bruskin said.

  Combat Intelligence Corps, Israel assigns units to prepare for rocket attacks from Iran, Maj. Avi Bruskin, proxies