Hezbollah claims that it destroyed an Iron Dome battery at an army base in northern Israel. It has distributed video from a camera in the nose of the missile showing its aerial path. It stops at the moment of impact. There is no video showing the aftermath of the strike which would confirm the report. However, an analyst with the pro-Israel Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has acknowledged the attack.
This is the first-ever successful destruction of an Iron Dome battery. It marks a major achievement for Hezbollah and its Iranian ally. The former used an Almas anti-tank missile, which relies on a TV feed allowing the operator to correct its trajectory toward the target. Ironically, the Almas is a reverse-engineered version of the Israeli SPIKE missile, which was captured by Hezbollah and transferred to Iran during the 2006 Lebanon war.
The National reports that the attack consisted of two separate elements. The first was an artillery or drone strike on the position, which may have scattered the operators, followed by the missile strike:
Taken together, the two videos appear to show a complex attack on the system involving artillery or rocket fire, which may have forced operating crews to seek shelter, allowing the Hezbollah missile to successfully reach the target.
Haaretz reports that the battery was located less than two miles from the Lebanese battery. The Almas has a range of five miles. The IDF also neglected to take into account that while Iron Dome can intercept certain varieties of missiles, it cannot defend against this type of missile when it is the target. While Iron Dome defends against rockets targeting Israeli population centers, it has no defense system protecting itself. It seems one of several major miscalculation on the part of the IDF.
Previously, Hezbollah has also attacked and damaged other northern army bases.
The Israeli SPIKE missile costs in the range of $140,000. For Iran, the cost is probably much cheaper. An Iron Dome battery costs $100-million. It seems a bargain for Hezbollah–and highly costly for the IDF. Now that nations who may have sought to buy the system have seen its vulnerabilities, Iron Dome will be a less desirable arms export product. This will hurt the bottom line of Rafael, the arms maker who produces it; and take some of the luster off the IDF’s aura of invincibility.
NEW: Israel’s use of white phosphorus in south Lebanon is putting civilians at risk and contributing to displacement.
HRW verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in at least 17 municipalities in south Lebanon since Oct. 2023. https://t.co/K9WpgX1Ppc pic.twitter.com/AtmbPJaeCQ
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) June 5, 2024
Hezbollah’s successful Iron Dome attack presages a wider war between it and Israel. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had even urged an attack on the Lebanese militia instead of against Hamas in Gaza. Though he was overruled, many observers expect such a battle sooner rather than later. If it happens, it will be an entirely different conflict than the IDF operation in Gaza.
Hezbollah has shown repeatedly that it has enormous military capabilities, including hundreds of thousands of missiles from its Iranian patron. This includes some of its most advanced models. Despite hundreds of air attacks on Iranian convoys transferring the weapons to Lebanon, the IAF has been unable to staunch the flow of arms.
Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah wouldn’t engage in such provocative behavior unless he was prepared for what was to come. All gloves appear about to come off. Both sides are likely to pay a heavy price as former Israeli officials have conceded:
“It’s very hard to see how this war can be won quickly, or at all,” Eran Etzion, who served as deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council during the last major Israel-Lebanon War in 2006…told Newsweek.
“From my perspective, I think it’s going to be a war that Israel will lose within the first 24 hours,” he added, “simply because of the pictures we will see of mass destruction in very sensitive areas within Israel on a scale we’ve never seen before.”
A Human Rights Watch report says that the IDF has fired white phosphorous at 17 southern Lebanese villages. Not only is its use a violation of international law, its impact on humans and the environment is horrendous. It is not fired on a specific target. It is spread in a wide burst that covers extensive ground. It causes massive burns and leaves the soil on which it falls toxic for years. Neighbors in surrounding villages refuse to buy agricultural products from targeted areas for fear of contamination. Residents are forced to abandon their homes. Additionally, after the US massive use of it in Fallujah, babies of Iraqi mothers still suffer birth defects.
Once there was restraint on the part of both parties. There were years of quiet on the northern front. But this Israeli government has thrown caution to the winds. It doesn’t care for the hundreds of thousands of Israeli residents who will be forced to evacuate their homes in the event of war; or the thousands of residents and soldiers who will surely die. It is hellbent on destruction for its own sake. This is a government of wrath and vengeance. It has turned Israel into a Nation of Death.
Add to this the inclusion of Israel in the UN blacklist of countries harming children in conflict: the umpteenth stain on Israel’s reputation that may finally bring an arms embargo – https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/israel-added-to-un-blacklist-of-countries
@Ismaele: Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before we get an arms embargo. In my most cynical self I think it would take a Rwanda-sized Israeli genocide in order for the world to intervene and finally put an end to Israel’s decades-long mass slaughter of its neighbors. 40,000 dead isn’t enough to move the world’s conscience.
I think that you need to recognize that one process unfolding along with everything else is that ‘the world’ is becoming less and less synonymous with ‘America.’
WE are still unmoved — but what we think is rapidly becoming less important to everyone else. How important is it what Brazil thinks? Well, that’ll be us in due course.
We’re coming to be an island. What the islanders think is no longer what the world thinks. Consider our stature in 1994, and consider it now. We’ll keep supporting Israel, alright — but it will cease to be enough.
Hizbollah hit the rocket launcher which is one part of the battery. Probably the cheapest.
There are the radars and the main system. The launcher is a magazine for rockers. It rough cost is 50k*16 or just under 1M$ and let’s say another million for the truck and the rest. Still a good bargaiwhen compared to the cost of a rocket but easily replaced.
@Arik: There is a large explosive payload on the Almas. Enough to destroy an entire tank. So chances are it either destroyed or seriously damaged the entire battery. If it had only been damaged the IDF might have released that information. The fact that it has refused to release any statement except a pefunctory one that it knew of none of its Iron Domes damaged, indicates it is attempting to keep this under as low a profile as possible.
Actually missile like that have a very small warhead but it is “shaped charge” so it can penetrate steel easily.
I would guess the warhead and fuel of the Tamir missile would create a very large explosion.
Then again, there is no reason to put the radar and brain near since both control several launchers.
This is defiantly a hizbollah achievement but there is no need to make it more than it actually is.