Knesset defense committee to convene emergency meeting on Israel’s lack of Arrow 3 interceptor missiles – report

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will convene an emergency meeting on Israel’s lack of Arrow 3 interceptors, Channel 12 reports.

Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the committee’s chairman, has reportedly called the meeting after over a third of the body’s members signed a letter demanding a discussion be held on the subject of “the failure of the interceptors and the abandonment of the home front.”

The letter was drafted at the initiative of Democrats MK Efrat Rayten after it was reported on Channel 12 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government repeatedly refused to increase funding for interceptor missiles amid rising tensions with Iran and multiple large-scale ballistic missile attacks.

The letter, referring to the investigation from last week, voices worry that Israel has “over the course of many months, avoided expanding assembly line production of Arrow 3 interceptors, despite two massive ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”

The Arrow 3 is Israel’s most advanced long-range defense system, meant to intercept ballistic missiles, like the type fired from Iran, while they are still outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

The lawmakers on the committee are requesting to summon both Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to answer the questions before the committee regarding the reported lack of interceptors. It is unclear when the meeting will be held.