For the first time, the Israeli army archive revealed that 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in Iraqi missile strikes during the second Gulf War, which followed the invasion of Kuwait in 1991, and published information and videos of the effects of the bombing.

The permission to publish on a part of the archive - which included video clips of the effects of the bombing in the Tel Aviv area - came on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of that war, and the video also included clips of the lives of Israelis in the closed rooms, the hearing of warning sirens across the country, and the code. Snake, which is heard on Israeli television and radio asking citizens to stay in sealed rooms.

The videos document the state of panic and fear, and the behavior of the residents upon hearing the warning sirens and the "snake" code, and also document scenes and live testimonies of some residents who fell near the place where the rockets lived, describing the sounds of explosions and fires that caused them and the effects of the destruction, and in front of these scenes raised questions among the residents : Why does Israel not respond to the missiles of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein?

The Israeli army archive in the Ministry of Defense reveals secret photos, videos and documents from that period, during which dozens of Scud missiles were launched from Iraq at Israel, while it appeared that many documents, videos and information are still kept secret in the military archive.

Strategy and decisions

One of the documents that was published is part of a study prepared in 2002 by Lieutenant Colonel Shimon Golan on “Decision-making at the Strategic Level in the Gulf War”.

It is clear from the map of the missile strike areas that appear in the study that anyone can clearly see the Iraqi attempt to strike the Dimona area and the concentration of missile strikes in the center of the country, the Tel Aviv area and Haifa Bay, and the study author concluded by saying, "Today, after 30 years, with high missile accuracy, One can only guess what the map of the missile strike areas will look like in a future war. "

The state of fear and anxiety was not limited to the population, but also included the military leadership, which lived in a state of confusion, especially in the early days of the war and the fall of rockets, according to what was revealed by the notes of the operations room of the Central Command on the level of tension and vigilance in the first days of the attacks on Israel.

The website of the newspaper "Yediot Aharonot" reviewed the most prominent details of the war on the Israeli home front, which was under Iraqi bombardment from the night of January 18 to February 25, 1991, when a disturbing alarm was sounded throughout Israel, after a missile was launched from Iraq.

Soon, this sudden warning turned into part of the biography and life of the citizens of Israel, who were on a daily schedule and around the clock with the warning sirens that sounded, as the warning scene was repeated and the biggest concern of both the army leadership or the political leadership in Tel Aviv was that Saddam Hussein's regime It will fire missiles carrying chemical warheads.

As a result of the publicized concerns, protective chemical and nerve gas masks were distributed to all citizens in Israel, so that the citizens' homes were transformed into sealed rooms, where the residents were called to enter the closed room that they had prepared in advance and not go to the shelters for fear of the chemical gases. Iraqi missiles may carry them.

The effects of the Iraqi bombing of Scud missiles on Israeli targets in 1991 (Reuters)

Attacks and fears

And what reinforced the fears of the citizens, according to the Israeli newspaper, that all Iraqi missile attacks that targeted Israeli cities were at night and in the dark hours, with the exception of a rocket burst that was Saturday morning.

On the night of January 18, 1991, Israel was on a date with the first barrage of Iraqi missiles that landed in Israeli cities, reaching many targets, as 8 missiles exploded from Iraq.

5 in the Tel Aviv district, and 3 in Haifa.

The next morning, 4 more rockets were fired at the Tel Aviv area.

The military archive revealed that the home front remained vulnerable to shelling and missile bursts without any response or interception by the Israeli air defenses, and only after the launch of the third missile burst from Iraq, when one missile was fired at Tel Aviv, then two Patriot missiles were fired for the first time to intercept it.

A day later, a lone missile was fired at Haifa and four Patriot missiles were fired at it.

Although the Israeli-American air defenses have begun to intercept the missile barrages, the Iraqi bombing has become more violent, according to the "Walla" news site;

On January 25 of that year, 9 missiles were launched;

7 is on Tel Aviv, and 2 is on Haifa.

According to the Israeli defense establishment, 27 Patriot missiles were fired at these missiles, without disclosing whether Saddam's missiles were successfully intercepted.

Backstage and confession

During the second Gulf War, the scenes in the Israeli military archive showed that from January 28 to February 3, 1991, another 4 Iraqi missiles were detonated in the West Bank area, apparently due to the fault of the Iraqi launchers.

Later, on February 16, there was a barrage of 3 rockets in Dimona, and one in the Haifa area.

The last rocket fire was on February 25, which targeted the Dimona area, but without disclosing or mentioning whether the Iraqi missiles were directed at the nuclear reactor in Dimona or were targeting it.

In all, the Israeli security establishment acknowledged that 43 Scud missiles were launched towards Israel from Iraq.

26 of them are to the Tel Aviv area, 8 to the Haifa area, 5 to the Dimona area, and 4 to the West Bank.

On the other hand, American soldiers, apparently present at Israeli military bases, fired 54 Patriot missiles to intercept Iraqi Scud missiles.

Victims and losses

Regarding the human casualties caused by the Iraqi bombing, the Israeli military archive acknowledges the occurrence of casualties, human losses, and damage to property and facilities, but claims that the losses were minimal, and that the human casualties and injuries were due to the state of fear and panic that the population experienced during the days of the war.

In a statistical inventory of human casualties, the military archive claimed that “a total of 229 Israelis were affected by direct missile strikes, 85 of them on February 22, and 67 people on January 25. In addition, 540 Israelis were treated for anxiety. In a panic, 222 people unnecessarily injected themselves with the nerve gas atropine injection.

A report from the Ministry of Defense stated that there are 14 dead in Israel as a result of the Second Gulf War, but according to the memorial site for the victims of the so-called "hostilities", the number is much higher, but without any disclosure.

In addition, several diaries of the operations of the IDF Central Command were also allowed to be published, so that the instructions were to treat each missile as a chemical missile until receiving a different message and instructions.

So the home front rescue teams wore protective clothing when they went to the places where the rockets had landed.

He wrote, after one of the missile strikes, “Hatikva neighborhood” south of Tel Aviv, “Ben Zvi Road” in Jaffa, “Sheibolim” in Tel Aviv, “Givatayim” Street, Mary and Rambam, referring to the area in which the missiles landed in the center of the country.

I also wrote words and phrases to appease the residents, most notably “the rockets do not contain chemical materials,” and the home front diaries used to write “there is destruction” at the sites of missile strikes, and also “a rear rescue unit included in the places of attack.”

Readiness and instructions.


Another document states the damage of the only missile fire that occurred in the morning hours in the Tel Aviv area, that “a missile hit Allenby Street No. 138 in Tel Aviv, the missile did not explode. Also, a missile fell in the Dekel Country and Park Yarkon area, without any casualties being recorded. ".

As the document states, "Parts of a missile also landed in places in Ramat Gan, while a missile hit a petrol station at the northern exit of the city of Rishon LeZion, where two were slightly injured and a small fire was extinguished that was extinguished, and parts of a missile hit the cities of Nice, Tseona and Tirat Shalom, south Country. "

The notes stated that on January 18, instructions were issued to reserve units in the Israeli army that had been mobilized to raise the level of preparedness and readiness, which would include opening warehouses and warehouses, completing the preparation of smoke and phosphorous ammunition through armored combat vehicles, and training those vehicles on movement, starting from At 16:00 in the afternoon.