The six-day-old conflict between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has spurred intense interest in Iron Dome, Israel’s expensive, recently developed missile defence system.
Iron Dome has been called a “game-changer”: it can discern a civilian-bound rocket from a harmless one and destroy it in a matter of seconds. The Israel Defense Forces said the system has a 90 per cent accuracy rate and has knocked down more than 340 projectiles since violence began escalating last week.
Whether Iron Dome is a defensive marvel or a symbol of the limits of technology depends on whom you ask.
“Life (in Israel) is very much disrupted, even if most of the incoming projectiles are intercepted,” says Greg Thielmann, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Arms Control Association.
The projectiles fired into Israel by Hamas are mostly crude rockets with a short range of approximately 20 kilometres. Many miss their target. Hamas has also fired Iranian-designed Fajr-5 rockets with a range of up to 80 kilometres at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in recent days. Most missed, and Iron Dome destroyed the rest.
Read more: Gaza conflict: Is Israel’s Iron Dome a game-changer? - thestar.com
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