Netanyahu and Barak were lambasted in recent weeks for failing to order the deployment of Iron Dome due to financial considerations. The cost of each "Tamir" missile, designed to knock down rockets manufactured in Gaza cellars, is estimated at tens of thousands of dollars.

Israeli anti-rocket system Iron Dome is deployed in Beersheba, southern Israel, on March 27, 2011. Israel on Sunday started deploying two batteries of the Iron Dome anti-rocket system in the southern country, in a bid to foil longer-range Kassam and Grad rockets from putting over a million Israelis within striking range in major urban areas. [Rafael Ben-Ari/Xinhua]

"I don't want to discuss costs. Our only consideration is the cost in terms of human life," said Gavish, adding that the system' s other advantage is in giving Israeli politicians "more time to make decisions without the pressure of casualties."

He declined to comment on whether the battery deployed Sunday would also be able to protect other southern cities targeted by rockets without having to be moved from its present location.

But the Air Force has said on several occasions that the two batteries currently at its disposal will not be sufficient to provide protection to the entire south, or in case Israel would have to wage war on more than a single front.

The U.S. Congress has thus far declined to approve 205 million dollars requested by Israel for the procurement of additional batteries. Gavish, however, said more will be added in the coming years.

On Sunday, as soldiers began setting up the first battery, hostilities along the nearby Gaza border continued. Earlier, IAF jets struck and killed two Palestinians, said to be members of an Islamic Jihad rocket crew, and wounded three others near the Jabaliya refugee camp.