Even as air raid sirens blared at least four times throughout this morning in central Israel, the country’s military insisted that its air defenses remain formidable and that the waves of Iran’s missile attacks are growing less effective.
“Since the third or fourth day the numbers have been high single digit and low teens,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, of the frequency of Iranian missile strikes. “We haven’t seen anything different recently, not in the amounts or the munitions used.”
The impact site of an Iranian missile in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Erik Marmor / Getty Images
Considering that Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel for nearly a month, Israeli fatalities from Iran’s counterattacks have remained remarkably low thanks to the country’s air defense system, its early-warning sirens and publicly available bomb shelters.
But the IDF has come under increased scrutiny over the past several days after multiple Iranian projectiles managed to pierce Israel’s high-tech missile umbrella and fall in identical areas.
Twin direct hits in southern Israel over the weekend injured at least 180 people, while an additional series of direct strikes – missiles that evaded interceptors – in central Tel Aviv earlier this week injured fewer than 10, according to health officials.
And in northern Israel, an Israeli woman was killed and two people were injured by rockets fired by Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
But despite repeated sirens in Israel on Thursday there were very few casualties.
