Egypt Daily News – The Washington Post revealed that the Israeli Iron Dome has only 10 to 12 days left to repel Iranian missile attacks, after which it will no longer be able to function.
It continued that since last Friday, the same scene has been repeating over Israel’s skies, where Iranian ballistic missiles race through the air, with a large portion intercepted by the Israeli air defense system, while another portion falls, causing unprecedented damage.
It added that the continued Iranian missile attacks and the large strategic stockpile of missiles owned by Iran raise questions about the capability of the Israeli air defense systems, foremost among them the Iron Dome, to intercept the Iranian missiles something that essentially determines the duration of this escalating conflict.
Iranian offensive capabilities
Israeli intelligence estimates indicate that Iran possessed about 2,000 missiles capable of covering a distance of 1,200 miles to strike targets inside Israel. However, a surprise Israeli strike, carried out by its warplanes and secret agents inside Iranian territory at dawn on Friday, caused significant damage to this stockpile and eliminated a large portion of it in the initial moments of the confrontation.
The newspaper added that since the outbreak of the confrontations, Israeli military sources confirmed that Iran has so far launched 400 missiles from its remaining arsenal, and that Israel destroyed 120 missile launch platforms one-third of Iran’s platforms. It continued that field indicators show a decline in the intensity of Iranian attacks. On the first day, Iran launched about 150 missiles at Israel, and by Tuesday night, it had launched only 10 missiles.
Fabian Hinz, a military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that Tehran is facing highly complex calculations due to the limited number of its missiles and its inability to replenish them immediately.
Hinz pointed out that what was launched on Friday is even less than the 200 missiles Iran used last October in response to Israel’s assassination of leaders in Hamas and Hezbollah.
Israeli missile defense nearing collapse
The newspaper confirmed that despite the success of Israeli air defenses in intercepting missiles from Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Yemen, the cost of a single defensive missile is extremely high, reaching around $40-50 million. Observers believe that continuing the war at its current pace is not possible for long, neither economically nor in terms of defense resources. Israeli and American intelligence estimates indicate that Israel can continue to repel the attacks for only 10 to 12 more days if Iran continues its assault at the current rate.
The newspaper added that this period may shrink significantly unless the United States intervenes by supplying Israel with ammunition or participating directly in the operations.
According to someone familiar with these estimates, Israeli defense systems may soon be forced to “choose what to intercept” only, due to the shortage of ammunition. The source added that “the system is already burdened.”
