The terrorist organization Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel over the past week and a half. Due to Israel’s Star Wars-like technology of the Iron Dome air defense missiles, many civilian lives were saved.

RAW FOOTAGE: This is the moment the Iron Dome intercepted a barrage of rockets over Tel Aviv and central Israel. pic.twitter.com/8jl8OTgWCl

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021

This most recent conflict has exposed the Iron Dome’s amazing capabilities to the Israeli public. Here is what you need to know about it.

At first, many were skeptical about it

When Brig.-Gen. Daniel Gold first proposed his idea for Iron Dome, he faced strong criticism that required a lot of nerve to overcome. Luckily, he managed to convince the country’s top brass of the advantages of his concept of air defense.

“My incentive was saving human lives,” he told ISRAEL21c a few years ago. “I saw what was going on and I said to myself, with all the technology that exists in Israel we must use it to protect human life. We will find a way. It always takes the political and military echelons a long time to think about what they want to do, and in the meantime, we started to create a solution.”

It provides protection against nearby threats

One of the reasons so many people were skeptical about Iron Dome was the type of threat that it was meant to protect from – short-range and low-tech rockets.

According to Rafael, the defense-sector corporation that developed it, Iron Dome works against mortars, artillery shells, rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters and more. In fact, the current conflict saw Iron Dome intercept a UAV, the first operational interception of its kind in the world.

The success rate is phenomenal

In Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Iron Dome proved to be highly successful, intercepting 90 percent of fatal rockets. Nowadays, its accuracy is said to be nearer to 95 percent. This means that the combination of the Iron Dome and following guidelines on how to behave during an attack (rushing to a protected space if indoors or lying flat on the ground when outdoors) has saved many, many lives in Israel. In fact, it’s a game-changer.

It works come rain or shine

Iron Dome can work in all weather conditions, including low clouds, rain, dust storms or fog.

It’s pretty costly

One of the criticisms first launched against Iron Dome was that it’s a costly operation. Each battery reportedly costs $100 million and each interceptor missile around $50,000. All this, while the rockets it detonates only cost a few hundred dollars to produce. And yet, time has shown the huge impact of the system, not only in saving lives but also in protecting infrastructure, buildings, and the like.