Israel faced a crisis when Hamas launched 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip, an attack that coincided with the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The Iron Dome, Israel’s renowned air defense system, is known for its high level of effectiveness in countering rocket attacks and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), with an accuracy rate of over 95%. However, during the surprise assault by Hamas, the Iron Dome struggled to handle the barrage of rockets.
The Israeli defense forces have continuously improved the capabilities of the Iron Dome, but it still faces difficulties when dealing with heavy rocket fire. The system consists of detection and tracking radar, battle management and weapon control, and the missile firing unit. Hamas employed a saturation attack strategy, firing 5,000 rockets within a span of 20 minutes in an attempt to overwhelm the Iron Dome. This resulted in the system reaching its capacity to intercept all incoming rockets.
Hamas has long sought to find weaknesses in the Iron Dome system and has occasionally succeeded in landing rockets in Israel by launching multiple projectiles simultaneously. In this instance, the Iron Dome could only engage targets up to a certain point and was unable to intercept all of them.
In response to the surprise attack, Israel launched air strikes on Hamas targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip, resulting in a significant number of civilian casualties. The conflict has caused immense devastation, with the Israeli onslaught being the deadliest in the country’s history and the Gaza Strip reporting over 1,000 fatalities due to Israeli air and artillery strikes.