Israel: Iron Dome downed 97% of Gaza rockets
The Israeli army announced that the Iron Dome air defense system had shot down 97 percent of the Palestinian missiles it tried to confront during the outbreak of fighting in Gaza since the weekend, an improvement in the performance of the US-backed system.
An Israeli military spokesman said that the movement had intercepted 97 percent of these missiles during the escalation of the fighting with Islamic Jihad activists in Gaza since Friday, describing this as the best performance of the system so far.
"We are improving our capabilities all the time," the spokesperson added.
The spokesman said that Islamic Jihad had fired 580 rockets at Israel as of Sunday morning, adding that about 20 percent of them fell inside Gaza, while the rest reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Iron Dome first entered service in 2011 and fires guided missiles to hit incoming missiles and other short-range threats in the air, and Israeli and US defense officials have previously estimated it has an 85 percent success rate.
This percentage rose to 90 percent in the 2012 Gaza war.
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