Why are Palestinian Rockets Getting Past Israel’s Iron Dome Defense System?

90% rockets destroyed

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said that 90 percent of rockets that reached Israeli airspace were destroyed by Iron Dome. Roughly 500 missiles had been fired from Gaza since the start of the conflict, military officials said as quoted in Israeli media.

However, even admitting that 10% of the rockets got past ‘Iron Dome,’ it still is a large number of rockets and missiles. The sheer number of projectiles fired towards Israel may have overwhelmed the Iron Dome system, some reports quoting western analysts said.

However, a report in Washington Post said some defense analysts question those numbers (of blocking 90% of rockets), arguing that the Israeli figures for successful interception are unreliable and that groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad that fire rockets and artillery from Gaza have adapted to the system.

Iron Dome upgrade

The rocket firing by Hamas comes at a time when the Iron Dome has been upgraded to handle the next level of threats.

In March this year, the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) had announced an upgrade to the Iron Dome system that enhances its ability to address evolving threats such as UAVs, missiles and rocket barrages.

An Israeli official, the head of the Mapat wall administration, Moshe Fattal was quoted as saying in an Israeli MoD release, "10 years after the first operational interception of the Iron Dome system, we are today completing a technological leap in the system's capabilities. In three series of experiments within a few months, we have jumped the capabilities of the Iron Dome system into the next generation of threats: complex, loaded and challenging missile and rocket barrages, clusters of unmanned aerial vehicles and more.”

Israeli Minister of Defense, Bnei Gantz was also quoted in the release: "The Israeli technological superiority provided through the Iron Dome and the multi-layered defense system is a cornerstone of Israel’s defense….thanks to which the citizens of Israel can sleep peacefully."