Israel's Iron Dome Failed To Defend Hamas Rocket Barrage. Here's Why

Israel plunged into crisis when Hamas launched 5,000 rockets at them from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an assault that came 50 years and a day after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel's air defence system, known as Iron Dome, is known across the world for being nearly impenetrable. Deployed in several parts of the country to counter rocket attacks and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the Iron Dome has an accuracy of over 95%.

But during the surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday, the system failed to handle the rocket barrage

Although the Israeli defence forces have been enhancing the Iron Dome's missile and rocket interception capabilities over time, it still encounters challenges when handling heavy rocket fire.

The ground-to-air short-range system comprises of three parts: detection and tracking radar, battle management and weapon control, and the missile firing unit.

Hamas launched a saturation attack on Saturday to overwhelm the system. They fired 5,000 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip within a span of 20 minutes. Due to this, the Iron Dome seemed to reach its capacity to intercept.

Hamas has for years been trying to find a weakness in the Iron Dome system and has often been able to land some rockets in Israel by launching multiple rockets at the same time.

This time around, the Iron Dome could only engage up to a certain point and was unable to intercept all targets.

The interceptors cost as much as $100,000, while each interceptor missile is about $50,000. This means if Israel had even managed to intercept all the Hamas rockets, it would have cost them Rs 2,079 crore.

Israel has launched air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip -- a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people -- in response to the militants' surprise Saturday attack.

Israeli forces said 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the onslaught -- the worst in the country's history.

In Gaza, officials reported more than 1,000 people have been killed in Israel's sustained campaign of air and artillery strikes.

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