EMBARGOED to 1700 GMT Saturday (8 p.m. Jerusalem, 7 p.m. Cairo)After a coronavirus-related delay, Israel’s navy is preparing for the long-awaited arrival of its next generation of missile boats — giving it a powerful new tool to defend its strategic natural gas industry from the threat of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.The first missile boat of “Project Magen” is scheduled to arrive by early December, with three more of the German-made corvettes scheduled to arrive over the next two years. “It’s bigger.
It’s newer. It’s faster. It’s better,” said Rear Adm. Eyal Harel, head of Israeli naval operations, during a rare tour of Israel’s offshore Leviathan gas field.