Tel Aviv (AFP)

For Daniel Gold, protecting Israel from what it considers existential threats is a long-standing commitment. After developing the "Iron Dome" missile shield, this engineer is now deploying all his energy to fight against the new coronavirus.

Responsible for research and development at the Ministry of Defense, Daniel Gold has recently added to his agenda, in addition to the usual meetings on war technologies, meetings on medical technologies.

As Israel faces a second wave of contamination, the nature of the threat is different, but this 58-year-old doctor of electrical engineering is just as determined to fight it as when he developed his "Iron Dome".

Deployed almost ten years ago, this system first aroused skepticism about its effectiveness. Then it intercepted thousands of Palestinian rockets from the Gaza Strip, conferring honors on its creator.

It was in 1991, during the Gulf War, that Daniel Gold said to himself for the first time that Israel needed a device capable of destroying missiles in mid-flight.

Saddam Hussein's forces dropped Scud on Tel Aviv and the metropolis was emptied of its inhabitants, he told AFP during an interview with the Defense Ministry: "something had to be done" .

Some 15 years later, General Gold and his team designed around twenty prototypes, before abandoning them all. Then create a zero system, notably involving partners from the private defense sector.

"I predicted that rocket fire would become a major threat to Israel (...), for which there was then no solution," he said, stressing that his superiors did not consider missile defense as a priority.

- New danger ... -

But in 2007, while the "Iron Dome" was still being developed, the Islamist movement Hamas took control of Gaza and launched rockets and other projectiles into Israeli territory.

In response, the Israeli army carried out strikes and the Hebrew State imposed a strict blockade of the Palestinian enclave, still in force and which critics denounce as a collective punishment for its two million inhabitants.

It was not until 2011 that the famous "dome" was deployed. It was essential to "save lives" but also "maintain a semblance of normal life in Israel", according to its designer: even when a rain of rockets fell on Israel, the inhabitants had to be "at least able to go to work. "

Once the system is back on track, Mr. Gold, also a graduate in business management, leaves the army and joins the private sector, before finding the Ministry of Defense, but this time as a civilian.

The engineer said he realized in early March how the pandemic of Covid-19 was a danger for his country, during a meeting at the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since then, his team has worked closely with the health system. In particular, she developed respirators and developed a virus screening test which should allow precise results to be given in less than a minute.

For this, Daniel Gold and his associates multiply the tests, use artificial intelligence, tests on smell and breathing, all with the help of government partners and the private sector.

"If we succeed (in developing this screening test), it will be a game-changer for the whole world," he hopes. An Israeli scientific breakthrough on the pandemic front could allow Israel to build relationships with countries that do not recognize it.

The virus has caught the eye of countries "we have never worked with before," added Gold.

In June, Israeli and UAE companies signed an agreement to develop research to combat the pandemic, even though the United Arab Emirates has no official relations with Israel.

According to Gold, research on the new coronavirus "is already creating new relationships".

© 2020 AFP