Israel's Iron Dome intercepted nearly 99% of 40,000 rockets from Hamas and Hezbollah since 2023, manufacturer says

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system has been nearly 99% effective against missiles from Hamas and Hezbollah militants and has knocked out most missiles from Iran, the chairman of its state-owned maker said on May 11, 2026. Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, told a conference of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs that since the October 2023 Hamas raid on Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon combined have fired some 40,000 rockets at Israel.

"Iron Dome intercepted most of them with success rates that (are) not 100% but close to 100%.

It's around 98%, even 99%, so it's not perfect, but almost," Steinitz said. The same system has performed strongly against Iranian ballistic missiles. Iran has fired about 1,500 ballistic missiles at Israel in two rounds of fighting since 2024.

Only several dozens of the approximately 1,500 Iranian ballistic missiles fired at Israel were not intercepted. Steinitz, who serves as chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, the state-owned maker of Israel's Iron Dome, noted that there was no shortage of missile interceptors. He described the system as not perfect but almost perfect.

The remarks came as a file photo from November 26, 2024, showed Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system operating for interceptions as projectiles were launched from Lebanon toward Israel amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in northern Israel.

com reported the details from the Tel Aviv-sourced Reuters dispatch. Steinitz's assessment covers the performance of the Iron Dome across multiple fronts and adversaries since the October 2023 Hamas raid on Israel.