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Several months ago, the IDF General Staff decided to send its flotilla of navy missile boats to protect Israel’s offshore natural gas fields in the Mediterranean.
The Tamar, Leviathan, and Yam Tethys natural gas fields are located outside of Israel's territorial waters, but within Israel's economic waters, coming in at 70 nautical miles offshore. Under international law, Israel’s armed forces can intervene within these economic waters to protect the rigs from an attack.
A senior officer in the Navy said, "The whole issue of 'economic waters' actually triples the size of Israel, but also creates strategic threats not only concerning the rigs and those working there, but also a threat to Israel's energy supply.” He also explained, “A possible strike against the rigs is a nightmare scenario."
The IDF views the rigs as potential targets for terrorist attacks and a likely target during an armed conflict. However, because the navy does not have a coast guard unit to patrol Israel’s shores, missile boats will take responsibility to patrol and protect the area.
Navy officers said that though the mission would occupy the missile boats operational time, the Israeli Navy would not be the only force responsible for patrolling the area, and that the IAF would have aircraft on alert in case of an attack.
To increase security, the navy decided to bolster the area with two additional missile boats at a cost of several million shekels per boat.
Though these boats will become active in a few years, according to the IDF, this force is still not enough. One officer explained, "We'll get more boats for the mission, but that isn't enough. We need even more. It will come at the expense of other things. One can't strengthen the navy in the long term like this. It means changing the operations of missile boats."
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