00:00 The Iron Dome, Israel's short-range missile defence system, was first developed by state-owned
00:04 Israeli defence specialists Rafael Advanced Defence Systems in 2007, with investment from
00:10 the US government following later in 2011, prior to going operational later that same
00:16 year. The development of the Iron Dome was a response to rocket fire that devastated
00:20 Israeli towns during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, as well as from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
00:26 where Hamas took control in 2007. The Iron Dome was deployed in late March 2011 and faced
00:32 its first serious test in a clash between Israel and Hamas in late 2012, where 1,500
00:39 rockets were launched towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. At the time, the Israel Defence
00:43 Force claimed that the short-range air defence system destroyed 426 rockets launched from
00:49 the disputed region, with a successful interception rate of 84%. Each unit within the Iron Dome
00:55 fires radar-guided missiles to intercept and destroy short-range threats like rockets,
01:00 mortars and drones if they are identified as a threat to Israeli population centres.
01:05 If the system determines they are not a threat, the rockets are ignored. The success rate
01:09 of the Iron Dome defence system has received international attention over the last 10 years,
01:14 but analysts say that this protection had lulled Israelis into a false sense of security.
01:19 Following an unprecedented missile bombardment launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, the
01:23 Iron Dome air defence system was overwhelmed. The wide-scale attack over the Jewish Sabbath
01:28 has killed more than 1,100 people on both sides and several thousands more are reported
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