Saturation, cyber attacks? How did Hamas get past Israel's Iron Dome

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00:00 One of the big questions we're asking on the programme today is how did Hamas carry out

00:04 such an audacious attack and what happened to Israel's defences, long considered the

00:09 most sophisticated in the Middle East?

00:12 Well, our science and technology editor, Julia Seager, has been looking into some of that.

00:16 She's with me right now.

00:17 Julia, let's talk about the Iron Dome.

00:19 It is Israel's famous defence system, but it seems it was overwhelmed over the weekend.

00:25 Just tell us, first of all, how it's supposed to work.

00:27 Well, indeed, the Iron Dome missile defence system was put together and deployed in March

00:32 2011, approximately 40 kilometres away from the Gaza Strip.

00:37 And it really resembles an aerial defence dome, just like the name indicates, but it

00:42 intercepts short and medium range missiles.

00:45 So it intercepts and destroys, of course, those missiles that are launched from Gaza

00:49 and it covers a radius of 4 to 70 kilometres.

00:53 And it does so thanks to ground-based radars that you see here that are able to detect

00:57 which kind of missiles have been launched.

01:00 It can then analyse the trajectory and also calculate the impact point.

01:04 But what's interesting is that the efficiency rate of the Iron Dome is close to 90 per cent.

01:09 The Israeli army was even talking about 96 per cent, an efficiency rate of 96 per cent.

01:13 But the problem is, with this dome, is when it's saturated with missiles.

01:17 So of course, the more rockets are fired, the greater the chances that some will slip

01:21 through the cracks.

01:22 And this saturation technique had already been used by Hamas back in 2021, during a

01:28 previous outbreak of violence.

01:30 Now, let's talk about another theory as to what went wrong for the Iron Dome over the

01:34 weekend, Julia.

01:35 And this is very much just a theory, but there is this idea that Hamas might have targeted

01:40 the Iron Dome with cyber attacks.

01:43 Exactly.

01:44 It's really just a hypothesis right now.

01:45 But the reason why we're thinking about this is because more and more when you have an

01:49 on-the-ground offensive, there tends to be simultaneously a cyber attack.

01:53 But what's very sure is that if Hamas did indeed target the Iron Dome through a cyber

01:59 attack, it couldn't have done it without the help of a foreign country.

02:02 And when it comes to that, of course, all eyes are on Iran and Russia.

02:05 The reason why is because the cyber warfare between Iran and Israel has only intensified

02:09 in the last 10 years.

02:10 It started approximately in 2010 with the Stuxnet bug, which destroyed a centrifuge

02:16 that was used in Iran's nuclear program.

02:20 And since then, the cyber attacks between both countries have continued.

02:24 Iran has strengthened its IT and cyber capabilities, even though it's still no match for Israel,

02:28 which is really considered to be today the world's cyber powerhouse, if you will.

02:34 But Iran is able to carry out its own attacks.

02:37 And it's believed that in 2020, for instance, it's believed that it targeted, excuse me,

02:45 not a centrifuge, but it targeted a, excuse me, what was it?

02:53 I'm sorry.

02:54 Should we move on, though, Julian, perhaps to the final issue?

02:57 Sure.

02:58 Because we don't have a lot of time and this is really important as well.

03:00 This is another possibility as to why Israel was sort of caught off guard here.

03:06 And that's that there was potentially a change of tactics by the militants in Gaza.

03:11 The other hypothesis is that the Israeli intelligence service may have been deceived because it

03:15 put too much interest into the advanced technologies and collecting intelligence to the expense

03:20 of human intelligence.

03:22 And Gaza militants may have found ways to evade technological intelligence gathering,

03:26 which would explain today why Israel had an incomplete picture of their intentions.

03:30 And it's said today that Gaza militants have stopped using phones and computers and all

03:35 of their sensitive activities is carried out in special protected rooms, protected from

03:40 technological espionage.

03:42 So they may have changed their ways of doing things and also found ways to counter Israel's

03:46 technological dominance.

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