Iron Dome Nearly 99% Effective Against Incoming Missiles, Maker Rafael’s Chairman Says

TEL AVIV, May 11 (Reuters) – ⁠Israel’s ⁠Iron Dome ⁠has been nearly 99% effective ​against missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah ‌militants and has knocked ‌out most missiles from ⁠Iran, ⁠the chairman of state-owned Iron Dome maker ​Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd said on Monday.

Rafael’s Yuval Steinitz told a ​conference of the Jerusalem Center for ⁠Security and ⁠Foreign Affairs that ⁠since ​the October 2023 Hamas raid on Israel, ​Hamas in ⁠Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon combined have fired some 40,000 rockets at Israel.

“Iron Dome intercepted ⁠most of them with success rates that (are) not 100% but ⁠close to 100%. It’s around 98%, even 99%, so it’s not perfect, but almost,” Steinitz said.

Iran, he said, has fired about 1,500 ballistic missiles at Israel in two rounds of ⁠fighting since 2024 and “only several dozens” were not intercepted.

He noted that there was no shortage of missile ​interceptors.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing ​by Hugh Lawson)

Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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