JERUSALEM — Overnight between May 13 and 14, an arresting image appeared on social media: On the right, streaks of fire shot out into the night sky — rockets heading for a group of buildings illuminated in the darkness.
Iron Dome interceptors, left, meet a volley of missiles from Gaza, right, May 14, 2021. (Anas Baba/AFP/Getty)
But on the other side of the photo, another cluster of lights, spread out like the tentacles of a jellyfish, was there to meet each of the rockets and knock it down before it could cause any damage.
The photo captured the Iron Dome, a missile defense system introduced in Israel a decade ago that has fundamentally changed how its wars are fought.
The Iron Dome is a radar-guided tool that allows Israel to pinpoint and intercept missiles headed for its civilian areas, which enables ordinary Israelis to survive in the midst of an unending barrage of rocket fire from militant groups in Gaza.
Israelis still need to run to bomb shelters when under fire. But the Iron Dome has intercepted 90% of Gaza rockets that were headed toward populated areas, rendering the vast majority of the more than 2,000 rockets fired by militant groups ineffective.
Here’s what the Iron Dome is, how it works — and why its success has sparked criticism of Israel.
On the ground, the Iron Dome looks like a set of beige columns arranged in a box, tilted onto their side and placed on wheels. But the technology that makes it so valuable is a radar that is able to pick bombs out of the sky. The technology, designed in Israel and manufactured in the US, works in four steps:
First, it identifies projectiles in the sky. Then, it determines whether the projectile is a bird, an airplane or a bomb. Then comes the most crucial part: It determines the arc of the missile, which allows it to find both the target and the missile launcher.
Then, if the missile is headed toward a populated area, the system directs its own bomb to intercept the missile and explode it before it lands.
The batteries can be moved around or stationed permanently in one location.
It isn’t foolproof. Hamas has sent barrages of more than 100 rockets in a short span of time at individual cities, which means that, even if Iron Dome is 90% effective, some bombs get through. And even when the system catches the rockets, shrapnel still falls to the ground.
That’s why Israelis still run to shelters every time sirens go off, warning of incoming missiles.
The Iron Dome was built and has been maintained with billions of dollars in funding from the US. It was first approved in 2007 and shot down its first missiles in 2011.
Each Iron Dome interceptor costs an estimated $40,000, and in prolonged conflicts with Hamas, Israel uses it hundreds of times.
As of 2018, the US spent more than $6 billion on missile defense aid to Israel, which covers Iron Dome and other, similar systems.
In the middle of the Gaza War in 2014, the Obama administration provided $225 million in aid to fund the system’s continued operation.
In 2018, the Trump administration provided another $705 million.
As Palestinian missiles became more precise and traveled farther distances, targeting not just Gaza border cities but Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Iron Dome played an increasingly essential role.
While Israelis still run for cover every time a siren wails, and while civilians are still killed, the Iron Dome has allowed society to continue functioning at a lower risk.
As Hamas’ missile technology improves, it’s possible that the Iron Dome could become less effective.
While Israelis love the Iron Dome for protecting them from bombs, Palestinian advocates say that the system creates a disparity in the fighting: Gaza residents have no such protection from Israeli airstrikes, such that Palestinian death tolls are far higher in Gaza during conflicts.
Rep. Ilhan Omar called Israeli airstrikes “terrorism” and lamented on Twitter this week that Palestinians did not have Iron Dome.
“Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism,” she tweeted. “Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians.”
“The fact that there aren’t more casualties in Israel does not mean that Hamas isn’t trying to kill Israeli civilians,” the IDF tweeted May 14. “It simply means that the IDF is preventing them from doing so at an incredible level.”
