Iranian missile strikes show Israel's aerial defense array is not ironclad

JERUSALEM (AP) — Iranian missiles again evaded Israel's sophisticated aerial defense array on Thursday, striking a main hospital in the south as well as residential areas in the country's populous center.

Israel has long relied on its multilayered missile defense system to protect communities around the country from rocket barrages from militants in Gaza or Lebanon. Since the wars in the Middle East erupted in 2023, that list has grown to include fire from rebels in Yemen and Iran.

Over the decades, Israel, with U.S. assistance, has developed a tiered system capable of detecting incoming fire and deploying only if the projectile is headed toward a population center or sensitive military or civilian infrastructure while letting other projectiles land in open spaces.

The array can shoot down short-range rockets to medium-range missiles to attack drones to ballistic missiles like those Iran has been firing.

But the military warns the system is not fool proof and while interception rates are generally high, enemy missiles can penetrate. Too many projectiles launched at once can overwhelm the system, which relies on a combination of technology and human decision-making to be effective.

Israeli authorities say at least 24 people have been killed by Iranian strikes since the fighting began on June 13, which has reduced homes, buildings and other property in multiple areas of the country to ruin.

Here’s a closer look at Israel’s air-defense system:

This system developed with the U.S. is designed to intercept long-range missiles, including the types of ballistic missiles Iran launched on Tuesday.

The Arrow, which operates outside the atmosphere, has also been used in the current war to intercept long-range missiles launched by Houthi militants in Yemen.

Also developed with the U.S., David’s Sling is meant to intercept medium-range missiles, such as those possessed by Hezbollah in Lebanon. It has been deployed on multiple occasions throughout the war.

This system, developed by Israel with U.S. backing, specializes in shooting down short-range rockets. It has intercepted thousands of rockets since it was activated early last decade – including thousands of interceptions during the current war against Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel says it has a success rate of over 90%.

Israel is developing a new system to intercept incoming threats with laser technology. Israel has said this system will be a game changer because it would be much cheaper to operate than existing systems.

According to Israeli media reports, the cost of a single Iron Dome interception is about $50,000, while the other systems can run more than $2 million per missile. Iron Beam interceptions, by contrast, would cost a few dollars apiece, according to Israeli officials.

The army says the technology has been tested during the past 20 months of conflict, but the system is not yet operational.

This story was originally published on Oct. 2, 2024. It was updated Thursday.

Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

People react next to a building struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — The Syrian army on Tuesday declared an area east of the northern city of Aleppo a “closed military zone,” potentially signaling another escalation between government forces and fighters with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Several days of clashes in the city of Aleppo last week that displaced tens of thousands of people came to an end over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.

Since then, Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 km (37 mi) east of Aleppo city, something the SDF denied.

State news agency SANA reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of “continued mobilization” by the SDF “and because it serves as a launching point for Iranian suicide drones that have targeted the city of Aleppo.”

On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo governorate building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city. The SDF denied being behind the attack.

The army statement Tuesday said armed groups should withdraw to the area east of the Euphrates River.

The tensions come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.

The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF has for years been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration in the U.S. has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.

Shams TV, a station based in Irbil, the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had been set to air an interview with al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for “technical” reasons without giving a new date for airing it.

An aerial view shows the area in the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood where clashes broke out Tuesday Jan. 6 between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Buses carry displaced residents as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Buses carrying displaced residents drive past a building in ruins as they return to the Achrafieh neighborhood after days of fighting between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)