General: Iron Dome cannot completely protect Israel and its citizens

Israeli Air Force Chief Major General Amir Eshel said that the Israeli public’s expectation that the Iron Dome will protect them is “unrealistic”, local media reported yesterday.

Iron Dome is an Israeli anti-missile defence system developed to protect Israeli cities from rocket attacks.

“We will thwart much rocket fire and will be effective in many areas, but we will not know how to fully protect the state of Israel,” Eshel said. “We will be harmed, but without the Iron Dome we will be harmed even more,” he was quoted as saying by the Israeli daily Haaretz.

“The problem is that the expectation is that the Iron Dome will provide a complete solution – that we will not get hit,” Eshel reportedly said.

The Israeli Air Force said earlier that the Iron Dome intercepted nearly 90 per cent of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip during last summer’s “Operation Protective Edge” in which over 2,160 Palestinians – mostly civilians – and 73 Israelis – mostly soldiers – were killed.

Previously, Israeli and American experts claimed that this percentage was not precise and said it was impossible that the Iron Dome had been effective during the war.