Israeli missile defences beefed up

Israel is better equipped to handle any Iraqi counter-attack than it was in the Gulf war when some 39 Scud missiles landed on the country, the army chief, Moshe Yaalon, assured Israelis yesterday.

Although the army chief gave no details of Israel's defences, Amos Yaron, the director-general of the defence ministry, has told the newspaper Haaretz that Israel's new Green Pine radar system gives the country three to four minutes' warning of any missile fired from Iraq, compared with the 30 seconds its previous system had in 1991. This will give people more time to respond to sirens and take shelter.

The country has also installed the advanced Arrow system, which can shoot down incoming missiles more effectively than the US-supplied Patriot missiles which George Bush senior hastily supplied to Israel when the Gulf war was already under way.

Israel is also reserving the right to strike Iraq pre-emptively or in retaliation. Its foreign minister, Shimon Peres, met US officials in Washington last week after George Bush's UN speech and was promised several days' warning of the starting date for an American attack. Mr Peres is as strong an advocate of US military action against Iraq as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, though both men know Washington wants Israel to keep a low profile on the Iraq issue, as Mr Peres put it.

Yet the more that officials say Israel faces little danger from Iraq, the more they undermine the case for Israel to join the US attack. As an editorial in Haaretz argued yesterday: "The danger posed to Israel is not great. The threat is not serious enough to warrant an Israeli action that could complicate the American campaign".

As the drums of war against Iraq grow louder, at least one Israeli mayor is planning a mass evacuation for people in his town in case missiles get through. Zvi Bar, the mayor of Ramat Gan on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, has suggested that a tent city be set up in southern Israel for people to flee to.

More than 9,000 flats suffered damage in Ramat Gan in 1991 when four Scuds fell, crushing several buildings. Most residents were in underground bomb shelters or had fled before the missiles struck. Only one person was killed.

Although the town has 128 communal shelters as well as scores of private ones, which the municipality says should be enough for everyone, the mayor feels people should also be given the choice of tents to escape to.

"There is nothing heroic in having women and children sitting in plastic-lined rooms waiting to absorb an attack. That is why we are recommending that they leave the city. There is no shame in leaving," he told the Jerusalem Post.

While Iraq's known missile arsenal of a few ageing Scuds poses little danger to Israel, newspapers here have reported western intelligence officials as raising other wild scenarios.

One is that Iraq has Soviet-made Tupolev-16 and Sukhoi-25 aircraft ready for "one-way" suicide missions to attack Israeli cities with non-conventional "dirty bombs". Another is that Iraqi agents would infiltrate the country with anti-aircraft missiles to shoot at civilian aircraft landing at or taking off from Israel's main international airport at Lod.