00:00 A recent call by one Israeli lawmaker to deploy a doomsday weapon against Hamas and Palestine
00:11 in the ongoing war has put the limelight on nuclear weapons in the region, namely the
00:16 Jericho missile system.
00:18 This week, an Israeli lawmaker called for her nation's military to use nuclear warfare
00:22 in response to attacks by Hamas.
00:25 Rev. Tali Gottlieb, a member of the Neset for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
00:31 Liquid Party, posted multiple posts on X advocating for a forceful retaliation following a surprise
00:36 attack by Hamas.
00:38 The call for the use of the Jericho missile system comes as more than 2,200 combined Israelis
00:42 and Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing war against Hamas.
00:48 What is the Jericho ballistic missile program?
00:51 Gottlieb specifically mentioned Jericho in reference to Israel's initial ballistic missile
00:55 program developed in the 1960s and named for the biblical city.
00:59 While the program was formed with French aerospace company Dassault, France withdrew in 1969
01:05 and Israel maintained the system and had the solid-fueled Jericho-1 model ready in 1973
01:10 during the Yom Kippur War.
01:13 The Jericho-1, which was retired in the 1990s, had a weight of 6.5 tons, a length of 13.4
01:19 meters and a diameter of 0.8 meters, according to the International Institute for Strategic
01:23 Studies.
01:25 It had a range of 500 kilometers and could carry a 1,000-kilogram payload, though it
01:29 had a 50 percent chance of hitting within a 1,000-meter radius of its target.
01:35 Israel later developed the Jericho-2, a longer-range missile in the late 1980s, with a length of
01:40 15 meters and a diameter of 1.35 meters, while maintaining the same payload capacity.
01:45 It had a range between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometers.
01:49 The Jericho-3, an intermediate-range system, was introduced years later and was reportedly
01:53 tested in 2008, entering into service in 2011.
01:58 It featured improvements over the previous models, with a longer length than the Jericho-2
02:02 and a larger diameter of 1.56 meters.
02:06 It is not yet clear if Jericho-3 has been deployed by Israel during the ongoing retaliatory
02:10 offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
02:12 Meanwhile, Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday as it pounded Gaza
02:17 to root out Hamas and deployed forces north of the densely populated Palestinian enclave,
02:21 where the militants said they were still fighting after their cross-border assault.
02:26 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to form a war cabinet with former defence minister
02:31 and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and focus entirely on the conflict, a
02:35 joint statement from Gantz's National Unity Party said.
02:38 [music]
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