Doher [M109L]

Using new radar systems, the 155-millimeter Doher cannons are able to track incoming rockets and target their source precisely. Their 12-mile range means they can hit targets well beyond the Israeli-controlled zone. The technological advances in tracking (rockets) were never used before. That makes this whole operation more precise, not hurting civilians.

In 1996 the forested mountains separating Israel and Lebanon reverberated with every blast of Israel's Doher cannons, whose radars home in on targets deep inside Lebanon. Israel's choice to use these long-range weapons illustrated its strategy in southern Lebanon: to hit Hezbollah guerrillas from afar, avoiding Israeli casualties, and pressure Lebanon to end the guerrillas' rocket attacks on northern Israel. After days of artillery barrages and air strikes against the guerrillas and the villages where they take cover, hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled their homes in southern Lebanon. Israel's long-distance strategy worked once before. In 1993, Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon also created a flood of refugees, and the government pressured Hezbollah to end attacks. Afterward, Israel and Lebanon reached informal understandings that civilians would be kept far from the conflict.