‘David’s Sling’ and ‘Arrow’ anti-missile systems: How Israel defeated Iran’s attack
In this photo released by Israel Aircraft Industries, an Arrow II anti-missile missile is successfully launched December 2, 2005 from an unnamed military base in central Israel. (IAI via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Israel’s layered missile defense system was once again put to the test on Tuesday as Iran launched more than 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.
The Iron Dome air defense system garners most of the attention because it is used to bring down frequent incoming unguided short-range rocket systems fired at Israel by both Hezbollah and Hamas.
But targeting guided ballistic missiles that travel at higher altitudes, longer ranges, and faster speeds requires different intercept systems that are specifically designed to bring down ballistic missiles.
David’s Sling and the Arrow 2 and 3 are Israel’s two other home-grown air defense systems that are capable of bringing down medium-range and long-range ballistic missiles.
Both systems along with the Iron Dome were utilized during Iran’s attack on Israel last April when 99% of the more than 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles launched by Iran were intercepted.
David’s Sling is designed to target medium and long-range missiles and has a range of 25 to 186 miles and produced by Raytheon and Rafael, the same Israel defense contractor that makes the Iron Dome.
The two-stage missile has no warhead, it destroys incoming ballistic missiles with the sheer force of impact, making it what is known as a “hit- to- kill” which has been characterized as hitting a bullet with a bullet given the high velocities involved.
The Arrow 2 and 3 systems are capable of handling much longer-range missiles like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) that will likely travel at altitudes beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, a capability similar to the U.S. military’s THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) air defense system.
The Arrow 3 system is believed to have a range of 1,500 miles and can reach an altitude of 100 miles.
The Arrow 2 is designed to explode near a missile to bring down an incoming missile, but the Arrow 3 is a hit-to-kill missile.
The Arrow 2 system was used most recently to shoot down long-range missiles fired at Israel by the Houthi militant group in Yemen, supposedly in support of Hamas and Hezbollah in their wars with Israel.
(BEIRUT) — Nearly one quarter of the Lebanese population has been displaced by Israel’s military campaign there, the country’s caretaker prime minister said.
Najib Mikati said 1.2 million people — out of Lebanon’s total 2022 population of 5.49 million, according to United Nations data — have been forced from their homes by Israel’s air and ground attacks.
“We are trying to cope with these problems, but to tell you the truth, security-wise, the most important thing now is to arrange for them shelter, food and how we can manage these displaced peoples,” Mikati said during an online event Wednesday hosted by the American Task Force on Lebanon, a nongovernmental organization.
Mikati said that the number of displaced people is the largest in the nation’s history, which has been punctuated by civil war and conflict with neighboring nations.
To date, 867 centers have been opened to receive displaced persons in public schools, educational complexes, vocational institutes and universities, Lebanese authorities said, with more than 200,000 Syrians and more than 76,000 Lebanese also crossing the border into Syria.
Israel’s bombardment has been especially intense in the south of the country, where Israeli troops are now engaged in heavy fighting with Hezbollah units per Israel Defense Forces battlefield reports.
The IDF has issued evacuation notices for some 90 villages there, warning residents to evacuate north of the Awali River around 37 miles from the Israeli border.
Anyone using vehicles to cross from the north to the southern side of the Litani River — around 18 miles north of the Israeli border — is endangering their “personal safety,” IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee said.
Israel is demanding that Hezbollah withdraw its forces north of the Litani, as the militant group agreed to do as part of a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution ending the last major cross-border conflict.
Airstrikes are also still pummeling Beirut, particularly the densely-populated southern suburb of Dahiya — known as a Hezbollah stronghold in the capital and described by author Hanin Ghaddar as “Hezbollahland.”
It was in a bunker under Dahiya that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israeli strikes on Sept. 27. Israel used bunker-busting bombs in the assassination, an Israeli official familiar with the strike told ABC News.
The IDF said it is hitting Hezbollah “terrorist infrastructure” and “weapons manufacturing plants” in “precise” strikes in the capital. Meanwhile, Hezbollah units continue firing rockets and drones across the border into Israel.
The IDF has issued multiple evacuation orders for residents of Dahiya. Another series of massive strikes rocked the suburb overnight Thursday.
Many people are living on the street, in parks and sheltering under trees. Others sleep on the city’s beaches to avoid the attacks.
“Another sleepless night in Beirut,” the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis, wrote on X. “Counting the blasts shaking the city. No warning sirens. Not knowing what’s next. Only that uncertainty lies ahead. Anxiety and fear are omnipresent.”
Lebanese health officials say more than 1,900 people have been killed across the country since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing into Israel across the shared border.
More than 9,000 others have been wounded, officials said.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Ghazi Balkiz, Nasser Atta and Marcus Moore contributed to this report.
(CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO) — The family of Shanquella Robinson, the North Carolina woman who died while vacationing in Mexico in October 2022, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Robinson’s travel companions, who are referred to in the suit as “the Cabo Six,” alleging battery, negligence, conspiracy and emotional distress.
Robinson’s mother, Sallamondra Robinson, spoke out during a press conference on Tuesday, along with family attorney Sue-Ann Robinson, who has no relation to the Robinson family.
“I would like each and every one of you, if you can, anything you can do, step in and help us with justice,” Sallamondra Robinson said. “We need justice for Shanquella Robinson. It has been two years and there’s no reason that they have not been arrested yet.”
ABC News’ attempts to reach out directly to the individuals identified as the “Cabo Six” were unsuccessful. It is unclear if they have retained attorneys.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County on Monday, two years after Robinson’s death, was filed on behalf of Sallamondra Robinson, and also names the U.S. State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation after federal prosecutors announced last year that they won’t be filing charges in this case, citing a lack of evidence.
“We are here today, not only to honor Shanquella Robinson and her family, but to call for action,” Sue-Ann Robinson said. “We demand, still again and until the end, that authorities take the necessary steps to investigate this case thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice … We will not rest until justice is served for Shanquella Robinson and her family..”
The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, claims that Sallamondra Robinson “suffered damages, in excess of $25,000 as a result of the wrongful death” and accuses the FBI of withholding records related to the investigation that the family sought to obtain through FOIA requests. The lawsuit also accuses the State Department and the FBI of negligence.
“The FBI’s standard practice is to decline to comment on pending litigation,” an FBI spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday.
ABC News reached out to the State Department, but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
Robinson, a 25-year-old Black woman from Charlotte, North Carolina, was found dead in the resort city of San Jose Del Cabo on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, on Oct. 29 2022 where she and six acquaintances traveled for vacation. According to the lawsuit, the six individuals “were believed to be friends” of Robinson’s.
Shortly after Robinson’s death, a viral video emerged on social media that appeared to show a woman – later identified as one of the “Cabo Six” – beating a naked Robinson in a room, while two spectators recorded the incident.
Sallamondra Robinson previously told ABC News that after her daughter’s death, she got a frantic telephone call from her acquaintances on the trip, claiming that she had died from alcohol poisoning. However, the Mexican Secretariat of Health’s autopsy report and death certificate for Shanquella Robinson, obtained by ABC News, lists her cause of death as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation,” with no mention of alcohol.
The report, which was dated Nov. 4, 2022, also states that the approximate time between injury and death was 15 minutes, while a box asking whether the death was “accidental or violent” was ticked “yes.”
Following Robinson’s death, the FBI opened a probe into the incident, but the bureau announced in April 2023 that federal prosecutors would not seek charges related to Robinson’s death due to a lack of evidence.
U.S. Attorneys Sandra J. Hairston and Dena J. King, who represent the Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina, wrote in a statement that in every case considered for federal prosecution, the government must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt, that a federal crime was committed.”
“Based on the results of the autopsy and after a careful deliberation and review of the investigative materials by both U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, federal prosecutors informed Ms. Robinson’s family today that the available evidence does not support a federal prosecution,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Mexican authorities investigated the case as femicide, a form of gender-based violence and issued an arrest warrant on Nov. 22, 2023, in relation to Robinson’s death for an alleged perpetrator who was not named, a local prosecutor confirmed to ABC News.
Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, the local prosecutor for the state of Baja California Sur, told ABC News in November 2022, that the warrant was “issued for the crime of femicide,” adding that Mexico is “carrying out all the pertinent procedures such as the Interpol alert and the request for extradition to the United States of America.”
The Attorney General’s Office of Baja California Sur, whose office is investigating, confirmed to ABC News in a statement on Tuesday that the investigation is still open.
“We made the necessary procedures before the United States, it is the authority there that must proceed with the apprehension of the probable perpetrator or perpetrators and put them at the disposal of the Mexican authorities,” the statement said. “Until there is a final sentence, the investigation cannot be closed.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Anne Laurent and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the parties named in the lawsuit.
(CAIRO) — Dozens of tourists are feared missing after a diving boat sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, authorities said on Monday.
The Sea Story, as the boat is known, sank off the southeastern Egyptian town of Marsa Alam, near the Shaab Satayah area, which is popular for its coral reefs, the Red Sea Governorate said in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
