What Iran’s hospital strike reveals about Israel’s missile defense limits
The direct strike highlights the limits of Israel's vaunted aerial defense systems as the Iran-Israel war intensifies.
Iran's strike on Beersheba's Soroka hospital on Thursday, which severely damaged a building, underscores the limitations of Israel’s vaunted aerial defense system in intercepting every ballistic missile fired at the country. Nonetheless, Israeli experts say the military operation launched against Iran last Friday has considerably diminished the Islamic Republic's targeting capabilities.
Tehran has launched more than 450 missiles at Israeli cities since last Friday. Of those, some 50 missiles got past Israeli air defense systems, striking buildings or landing in open spaces, according to Ynet. Israel's Channel 12 reported that close to 90% of the Iranian missiles launched since Friday were intercepted, though significant damage has been caused to civilian infrastructure and 24 people have been killed by the missile barrages.
Iran has significantly reduced the number of missiles it has fired in recent days compared to the first few days of the war.
Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ran Kochav, who served as commander of the Israeli air and missile defense forces, told Al-Monitor that Iran might have decided to reduce the number of missiles launched so it can continue firing them over an extended period of time, given the probability that its capacity to produce new missiles has been damaged or perhaps destroyed.
