Iron Dome Deployed Near Eilat as Iranian Arms Ship is Unloaded
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by Gidon Ben-Zvi
A missile found on board the Iranian ship. Photo: IDF.
With the unloading of seized Iranian arms ship KLOS-C underway in Eilat, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) deployed an Iron Dome missile battery in the area, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Sunday.
Israel claims that the ship, which Navy commandos captured in the Red Sea last week and brought to Eilat’s port on Saturday, carried advanced rockets from Iran bound for terrorist organizations based inside the Gaza Strip.
IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz visited the southern city on Saturday evening and praised the Israeli soldiers who planned and implemented the daring military operation on the high seas.
“Each one of these rockets presents a serious security challenge to the State of Israel and its citizens,” he noted. “Every bullet and every missile we uncovered had an Israeli address on it.”
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, and other senior officials and foreign diplomats, will attend the public unveiling of the weaponry seized from the KLOS-C, Channel 2 reported. They will also convene a special press conference from Eilat.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Netanyahu leveled harsh criticism against European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, who is visiting the Islamic Republic this week.
“The goal of seizing the arms ship was to expose Iran’s true face,” Netanyahu told ministers at his government’s weekly Cabinet meeting. “I say this in order to bring it to the attention of Ms. Ashton, who is now visiting Tehran, and I wish to ask her whether she asked her hosts about the shipment of weapons to terrorist organizations.”
