While Israel recently marked the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the ongoing war, dozens of rockets continue to be fired daily from Lebanon and, less frequently, from Gaza into the country.

The Israeli military estimates that over a year of conflict, close to 26,000 rockets were fired against Israel, with 13,200 coming from Gaza and 12,400 from Lebanon.

Despite the considerable number of projectiles launched towards Israel, only a handful of deaths and injuries from the attacks are reported each month.

This is because up to 90 per cent of rockets are intercepted in the sky before reaching their target, thanks to Israel's short-range missile defense system dubbed the "Iron Dome".

Inaugurated in 2011, the system developed by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing can direct radar-guided missiles against short-range, low-tech threats such as rockets, mortars and drones.

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"It calculates the trajectory of the incoming target. And so, after calculating, it can direct itself and hit the incoming rocket, not in head-on collision, but in proximity, very close. And then it detonates and causes a damage to the incoming rocket," says senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Dr. Yehoshua Kalisky.

The system is built to discern between rockets headed for population centers and strategic infrastructure and those set to land in unpopulated areas. It then destroys those posing a threat to humans, letting others finish their course.

This allows for savings as each ‘Tamir' interceptor missile reportedly costs $50,000, which nevertheless remains much cheaper than a multimillion-dollar American Patriot missile.

Israel started working on developing the Iron Dome after Hezbollah caused significant damage during the 2006 war in southern Lebanon, in which it fired thousands of rockets south of the border.

"Some kind of defense had to be developed. The military attempt to suppress the fire by offensive means did not succeed," the founder and first director, from 1991-1999, of the Israel Missile Defense Organisation in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Uzi Rubin, told Reuters.

"The (then) Minister of Defense (Amir Peretz) decided to develop a defense system and Rafael (Advanced Defense Systems, defense systems company) came up with the best suggestion."

While the Iron Dome came as a satisfying answer to the threat posed by rockets, ballistic missiles such as those fired by Iran against Israel on April 13 and October 1, 2024, represent a different challenge.

To address those threats, Israel relies on other layers of its air defense network: the Arrow-2 and 3 systems, which entered service before the Iron Dome, as well as 'David's Sling', a system developed roughly at the same time as the Dome.

The Arrow systems are designed to intercept ballistic missiles fired from thousands of kilometers away. The Arrow-2 is optimized for destroying missiles in the atmosphere, while the Arrow-3 can hit them while they are coasting in space.

David's Sling is meant to engage shorter-range ballistic missiles launched 100 to 200 km (62 to 124 miles) away, as well as aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.

"David's Sling is working all the time. When you have a more difficult target, you hear about ground-to-ground missiles being fired from Lebanon, they are usually engaged by David's Sling, which is very, very effective," Rubin says.

"It's a big Iron Dome, much, much bigger than the Iron Dome."

To try and circumvent Israel's defenses its adversaries have worked on new ways to attack. Kalisky says Hezbollah has been particularly effective in this regard, by relying on anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and short-range missiles.

Such weapons operate at timeframes and altitudes that the Iron Dome is not designed to be effective in, which leaves towns and villages of northern Israel exposed to their fire. This is why residents of this region remain displaced, after being evacuated since October 2023.

In what it says is a bid to return about 60,000 people to their homes, Israel has launched a limited ground operation in southern Lebanon, along with a country-wide airstrike campaign.

The aim, Israeli authorities say, is to neutralize Hezbollah's ability to target the country's north.

The expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to Lebanon's government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting.

(Production: Manuel Ausloos)