Paul Wallace and Galit Altstein
4 min read
(Bloomberg) -- As Iran fires masses of ballistic missiles, Israel’s vaunted air defenses are being tested like never before.
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Iran launched around 200 such missiles at Israel on Friday night — in retaliation for a wave of Israeli strikes that day — and 70 or so on Saturday evening, according to the Israel Defense Forces. More came on Sunday and Monday.
In total, Tehran’s sent 370 ballistic missiles toward Israel, with around 30 hitting targets in the country, the Israeli government says. They have killed 24 people and injured almost 600.
Towns such as Rishon LeZion and Bat Yam near Tel Aviv have suffered extensive damage to homes. Haifa, a port city in the north, has been heavily targeted, as has central Tel Aviv.
Iran has also launched hundreds of drones, which have been more easily intercepted.
“We have some good defense systems, but they’re not hermetically sealing the skies,” Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told ABC on Sunday. “About 10% to 15% of these ballistic missiles get through.”
That’s in line with the Israeli military’s expected “leakage rate.” The US, while not joining Israel in striking Iran, is helping its ally intercept Tehran’s missiles, with each wave costing millions of dollars to defend against.
The attacks by Iran since Friday have been far deadlier and more damaging than when the Islamic Republic fired missiles and drones at Israel in April and October last year.
Back then, Iran concentrated mostly on military and intelligence targets. This time around, its firing larger numbers of projectiles and more are heading toward civilian areas.
Israel has faced barrages of missiles and drones before from Iran-backed groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. But neither possesses the sophisticated ballistic projectiles fired by Iran, which travel at much faster speeds, carry heavier explosives, can maneuver mid-air and spend much of their flying time outside the Earth’s atmosphere, making them difficult to intercept.
The Houthis in Yemen have fired such missiles at Israel, but usually no more than one at a time.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israelis there would be further attacks in the coming days from Iran and urged them to rush to bomb shelters when air-raid sirens sound or they get phone alerts.
Stopping Iran from firing missiles is a top priority for the IDF. It has tried to target launch sites since Friday and officials have said that roughly a third — or 120 — of them have been taken out.