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Israelis threatened by rockets sue government over laser shield

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

TEL AVIV — Israel has been sued by nerve-wracked residents within range of Palestinian rockets for delays in activating a 1990s-era laser-based missile defense system.

Residents of the Israeli communities, under daily assault by Palestinian missile strikes, have sued Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Middle East Newsline reported. In a suit filed in Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday, the residents of Sderot and surrounding towns demanded that Barak order the deployment of the Tactical High-Energy Laser system, developed with the United States in the 1990s.

"Leaving the residents of Sderot and the Western Negev settlements to face Hamas rocket shooting for years when there are reliable and available solutions to protect the civilians, is a grave failure and an inconceivable outrage," Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Alon Davidi, who represent the petitioners, said in a statement.

The suit asserted that THEL could intercept short-range missiles and rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The petitioners also asked the court to order the Olmert government to deploy the U.S.-origin Sky Guard laser-based system near the Gaza border by 2010.

In 2001, Israel refused to deploy THEL along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli military determined that THEL, a system the size of a house, was too large for operational effectiveness.

Instead, Israel and the United States embarked on M-THEL, or a mobile laser system that could be transported by boxcar. In 2005, the U.S. Army, preferring other projects, canceled M-THEL.

The suit by 70 Israelis alleged that the Israeli military and government were grossly negligent in refusing to deploy THEL to protect the Sderot area. The petitioners asserted that THEL destroyed all 46 incoming projectiles in live fire tests in the late 1990s.

THEL, known as Nautilus in Israel, could be transported from the United States and deployed in Sderot within the next six months, the suit said. The reported cost of deployment would be $5 million.

"According to missile experts relied upon by the plaintiffs, an examination of all shooting incidents towards Sderot in the last six years shows that would the Nautilus have been stationed near the city six years ago, there would have been no rockets falling on Sderot whatsoever," the statement by the attorneys said.

The Defense Ministry has ordered the Iron Dome rocket defense system to intercept Palestinian short-range missiles and rockets. But the ministry has acknowledged that Iron Dome could not destroy incoming missiles with a flight of less than 15 seconds.

"The failure to utilize the Nautilus system has resulted in the murder and injuring of dozens of residents of Sderot," the statement by the attorneys said. "The IDF has completely breached its duty to protect the Negev's civilians. The lawsuit will expose that the Olmert government has placed its own narrow interests before the safety of the residents of Sderot."

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