What Is the Jericho Missile? Israel's 'Doomsday' Nuclear Option

Calls by one Israeli lawmaker to deploy a "doomsday" weapon against Hamas and Palestine has shined renewed light on nuclear weapons in the region, namely the Jericho missile system.

Revital "Tally" Gotliv, an Israeli lawyer and member of the Knesset for the Likud, posted multiple times on X, formerly Twitter, about entertaining nuclear warfare instead of introducing mass ground forces.

Her rigid policy position comes as Israel bombed Gaza overnight and the death toll following a surprise attack on Saturday by Hamas—a militant Palestinian group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States—has surpassed 1,200, according to Reuters, which cited statistics from the Israeli military, including an additional 2,700 wounded on both sides.

Gotliv specifically mentioned "Jericho," in reference to Israel's initial ballistic missile program developed in the 1960s and named for the Biblical city. While the program was formed with French aerospace company Dassault, France withdrew in 1969 and Israel maintained the system and had the solid-fuel Jericho-1 model ready in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War.

"But why would Israel need to develop an intermediate-range ballistic missile, given that its declared adversaries—Iran and several Arab states—are all within much shorter range?" wrote Mark Fitzpatrick, associate fellow for strategy, technology and arms control at IISS in August 2021. "The answer may be that Israel, as a security-infused state, always considers worst-case scenarios and plans for contingencies."

A report from the left-leaning publication Haaretz, which has condemned the lack of preparation on Israel's behalf regarding the Hamas attack on Saturday at a music festival and subsequently called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, wrote in 2019 about how the Israeli military test-launched a "rocket engine propulsion system."

That was viewed at the time as a threat to Iran, which has been viewed by some as an adversary because of its support for Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has "no evidence, no proof, no intelligence proof of Iranian involvement."

However, while the Iranian mission to the United Nations previously told Newsweek it did not have a direct role in Saturday's attacks, it admitted that Tehran has provided Palestinian fighters the with the skills required for combat.

Newsweek reached out to officials at IISS, CSIS, NTI and the Federation of American Scientists via email for comment.

The Jericho-1 model, which was retired in the 1990s, weighed 6.5 tons and had a length of 13.4 meters and a 0.8-meter diameter, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

It had a range of 500 kilometers (about 310.6 miles) and carried a 1,000-kilogram (about 2,205-pound) payload. However, it had a 50 percent chance of landing within a 1,000-meter radius of a target.

A longer-range missile dubbed Jericho-2 and developed from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s included a longer length (15 meters) and bigger diameter (1.35 meters) but identical payload. It could travel between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometers (between about 932 and 2,175 miles).

The intermediate-range Jericho-3 system was developed decades later. According to the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and its Missile Defense Project, the ballistic missile was reportedly tested in 2008 and introduced for service in 2011.

Developed and possessed by Israel, the missile's specifications further improved upon the previous two models, boasting an extra meter or so in length compared to Jericho-2 and a 1.56-meter diameter. The single warhead weighing some 750 kilograms (1,653 pounds) reportedly has a range between 4,800 and 6,500 kilometers (about 2,983 to 4,039 miles). The payload extends to about 1,300 kilograms (2,866 pounds).

Multiple analysts' reports said the Jericho-3, also designated the YA-4, was first tested in January 2008 from the Palmachim flight test center near Tel Aviv, followed by an additional motor test in February 2008.

Israeli weapons expert Isaac Ben-Israel, who founded the Israel National Cyber Directorate and was in charge of the Israel Space Agency, said following the 2008 test that "everybody can do the mathematics...we can reach with a rocket engine to every point in the world," according to a 2012 piece published by the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Israeli Ministry of Defense officials also reportedly acknowledged the launch, calling it a representation of a "dramatic leap in Israel's missile capabilities."

Another unconfirmed test was reported in 2011, leading some to believe the missile's second iteration would be phased out in the following decade.

Additional tests were reportedly conducted in 2013 and 2019.