Israel's anti-missile shield under pressure from Hezbollah and Iran attacks
Iranian missiles towards the capital and Hezbollah blasts from Lebanon put Tel Aviv's defence system under pressure. Authorities warn the population: 'Difficult days lie ahead'
The military escalation between Israel, Iran and Hezbollah also reaches Jerusalem. The Israeli Foreign Ministry today denounced the Iranian missile attacks on 28 February on the capital, just a few hundred metres from the Old City, the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa and the Holy Sepulchre.
Reuters explains that the Israeli multilevel system continues to intercept most of the incoming missiles, but that some Iranian carriers managed to evade interception and cause casualties and damage. Several sites were hit, including a synagogue and a public shelter in Beit Shemesh, a building in Tel Aviv, a street in Jerusalem, as well as the fall of a warhead near the Old City.
An Israeli defence source described the surge as the first coordinated action between Iran and Hezbollah since the beginning of the war, with ballistic missiles launched from Iran while Hezbollah opened up the northern front almost simultaneously with a massive barrage from Lebanon. After the attack, Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the expansion of operations in Lebanon, while the army extended evacuation orders in the south of the country.
On the Lebanese front, the Israeli press was even more explicit. TheJerusalem Post reported that Hezbollah fired over 200 rockets during the night and that the results of Israeli air defences against that barrage were 'mixed'. The newspaper writes that the IDF admitted a failure in early warning in some areas.
Also making the picture more difficult is the nature of the vectors used by Tehran. Associated Press explains thatTehran used cluster munitions "almost daily" and that, according to an Israeli military official quoted anonymously, about half of the projectiles launched towards Israel in that phase of the war werecluster munitions. A type of weapon, this one, that complicates the defence: the Arrow system, in fact, can intercept the ballistic missile, but if the warhead opens before the carrier is destroyed, the submunitions disperse and there is no system designed to neutralise them one by one. A researcher from Israel's Institute for National Security Studies summed up the problem this way:these weapons do less damage to buildings and more to people.
