And then, a BOOM!

[Bob Of Burleson]

Iron Dome, Israel’s antimissile system,
changes calculus of fight with Hamas

By Griff Witte and Ruth Eglash
The Washington Post

ASHKELON, Israel — The roar of sirens echoed across this sun-kissed city Monday afternoon, and in a heartbeat the woman in the pink bikini was out of the pool shepherding her three young kids to the nearest shelter.

Up above, the vapor trail of a rocket fired from Gaza, just 10 miles down the coast, ripped the clear blue sky.

And then, a boom: The rocket had been shot down.

The kids jumped back in the seaside pool, and their mother returned to her tan. Through it all, the lifeguard had barely stirred.

Such is the dichotomous reality in southern Israel this week, as residents live under both the terror of a Hamas rocket barrage and the protection of a highly sophisticated antimissile system that has proven remarkably successful at intercepting the incoming fire.

When Iron Dome works, as it does some 90 percent of the time, the rockets explode overhead, producing a deep boom that Israelis have learned to distinguish from the bang of a direct hit.

The system is widely credited here with allowing Israel to endure more than 1,000 rocket attacks in the past week without a single fatality as of Monday night. It has also allowed residents across the south to carry on with a measure of normality, despite an unrelenting exchange of fire that has claimed at least 175 lives in nearby Gaza.

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[BillB]

It sure beats the old Patriot system.

[GRANDPA]

All that debris still has to come down.