Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Iron Dome Soldiers: “We face a brutal enemy but do not forget who we are.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, visited an Iron Dome battery and an intercept control center, in the south, and evaluated the latter and its systems in real time as air defense soldiers considered whether or not a target was hostile and decided – in mere seconds – whether to launch an interceptor at it.
The Prime Minister also spoke with the soldiers and intercept personnel of the Southern Iron Dome Brigade, the 947 Brigade. Air Defense Commander Brig.-Gen. Gilad Biran and 947 Brigade commander Lt.-Col. Elad Zinman briefed the Prime Minister on air defense operations since the start of the war, the deployment of a record number of Iron Dome batteries throughout the country, the defense of the country and the interception of threats, and the very high proportion of success.
Brig.-Gen. Biran also reviewed the events of October 7th regarding Iron Dome in which the anti-missile defensive array thwarted an unprecedented aerial assault on the State of Israel and lost three of its soldiers – Lt. Sahar Saudian, Cpl. Binyamin Gavriel Yonah and Cpl. Nativ Kotzro – who operated batteries during the massacres.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said to the soldiers:
“These fighting men and women who are operating our Iron Dome array are the shield of the State of Israel. People forget that since the start of the war, Hamas has launched around 10,000 rockets and missiles at the State of Israel in or der to kill our citizens.
You are doing sacred work in saving the citizens of the State of Israel. That is the difference between us and them: You are saving civilians while they sacrifice civilians and bring them into the war zone and do not allow them to leave, threatening them and even shooting at them so that they stay on the front line.
We face a brutal enemy but do not forget who we are; neither do we forget who you are. We greatly appreciate what you are doing, which of course assists us in the war effort.”
