( From Jane's Defense Weekly: Israel's INS Hanit, a Eilat (Sa'ar 5)-class missile corvette, was struck on 14 July by an Iranian-made C-802 Noor (Tondar) radar-guided anti-ship missile, fired by Hizbullah from Beirut. "We were not aware that Hizbullah possessed this kind of missile," said Rear Admiral Noam Faig, Israel Navy (IN) head of operations, told Jane's. "We are familiar with that missile from other areas but assumed that the threat was not present in Lebanon." The Noor, based on the Chinese C-802, was reported to have a 200 km range during manoeuvres conducted by the Iranian Navy in April 2005….) Posted on July 15, 2006: What's clear is that Israeli intelligence underestimated the range of Hezbollah's rockets.
(Number of the sites in the north of Israel struck by Katyusha rockets so far today - courtesy of the Jerusalem Post) Tiberias, for example, is 35 kilometers from the Lebanese border and was thought to be safe from attack. One lesson in all this is that a nation, in this case Iran, can substantial enhance the capabilities of its proxy and that state sponsors must be held accountable for their actions. The current bout of international finger wagging isn't going to do the trick. From the Jerusalem Post:
Hours after its first rocket attack since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Tiberias sustained a second barrage of Katyusha rockets. Two of the rockets hit residential areas, while two others fell in open areas, police said. Another rocket hit an apartment building shortly later…. Between the two strikes, rockets fell in numerous other places along the northern border, including Nahariya, Safed, Mahanayim, Hatzor, Ben Ami and Karmiel…. The first strike on Tiberias early Saturday afternoon represented a further extension of Hizbullah's rockets' range, since Haifa was struck on Thursday. Tiberias is located on the western shore of the Kinneret, some 35 kilometers south of the Lebanese border, which was previously assessed to be outside the area that would be hit by Katyushas…. Moshav Kfar Hitim, near Tiberias, along with Migdal, Evron, and Abu Snan in the western Galilee were also hit. Earlier, a senior Israeli intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said that Hizbullah has 150 missiles that could reach a distance of 45 kilometers, and another 20 with a range of 100-200 kilometers. "They may hit Tel Aviv," the official said, adding that intelligence officials were not sure why Hizbullah has not used the missiles since it started firing rockets at Israel on Wednesday….