Saturation, cyber attacks? How did Hamas get past Israel's Iron Dome
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00:00 One of the big questions we're asking on the programme today is how did Hamas carry out
00:04 such an audacious attack and what happened to Israel's defences, long considered the
00:09 most sophisticated in the Middle East?
00:12 Well, our science and technology editor, Julia Seager, has been looking into some of that.
00:16 She's with me right now.
00:17 Julia, let's talk about the Iron Dome.
00:19 It is Israel's famous defence system, but it seems it was overwhelmed over the weekend.
00:25 Just tell us, first of all, how it's supposed to work.
00:27 Well, indeed, the Iron Dome missile defence system was put together and deployed in March
00:32 2011, approximately 40 kilometres away from the Gaza Strip.
00:37 And it really resembles an aerial defence dome, just like the name indicates, but it
00:42 intercepts short and medium range missiles.
00:45 So it intercepts and destroys, of course, those missiles that are launched from Gaza
00:49 and it covers a radius of 4 to 70 kilometres.
00:53 And it does so thanks to ground-based radars that you see here that are able to detect
00:57 which kind of missiles have been launched.
01:00 It can then analyse the trajectory and also calculate the impact point.
01:04 But what's interesting is that the efficiency rate of the Iron Dome is close to 90 per cent.
01:09 The Israeli army was even talking about 96 per cent, an efficiency rate of 96 per cent.
01:13 But the problem is, with this dome, is when it's saturated with missiles.
01:17 So of course, the more rockets are fired, the greater the chances that some will slip
01:21 through the cracks.
01:22 And this saturation technique had already been used by Hamas back in 2021, during a
01:28 previous outbreak of violence.
01:30 Now, let's talk about another theory as to what went wrong for the Iron Dome over the
01:34 weekend, Julia.
01:35 And this is very much just a theory, but there is this idea that Hamas might have targeted
01:40 the Iron Dome with cyber attacks.
01:43 Exactly.
01:44 It's really just a hypothesis right now.
01:45 But the reason why we're thinking about this is because more and more when you have an
01:49 on-the-ground offensive, there tends to be simultaneously a cyber attack.
01:53 But what's very sure is that if Hamas did indeed target the Iron Dome through a cyber
01:59 attack, it couldn't have done it without the help of a foreign country.
02:02 And when it comes to that, of course, all eyes are on Iran and Russia.
02:05 The reason why is because the cyber warfare between Iran and Israel has only intensified
02:09 in the last 10 years.
02:10 It started approximately in 2010 with the Stuxnet bug, which destroyed a centrifuge
02:16 that was used in Iran's nuclear program.
02:20 And since then, the cyber attacks between both countries have continued.
02:24 Iran has strengthened its IT and cyber capabilities, even though it's still no match for Israel,
02:28 which is really considered to be today the world's cyber powerhouse, if you will.
02:34 But Iran is able to carry out its own attacks.
02:37 And it's believed that in 2020, for instance, it's believed that it targeted, excuse me,
02:45 not a centrifuge, but it targeted a, excuse me, what was it?
02:53 I'm sorry.
02:54 Should we move on, though, Julian, perhaps to the final issue?
02:57 Sure.
02:58 Because we don't have a lot of time and this is really important as well.
03:00 This is another possibility as to why Israel was sort of caught off guard here.
03:06 And that's that there was potentially a change of tactics by the militants in Gaza.
03:11 The other hypothesis is that the Israeli intelligence service may have been deceived because it
03:15 put too much interest into the advanced technologies and collecting intelligence to the expense
03:20 of human intelligence.
03:22 And Gaza militants may have found ways to evade technological intelligence gathering,
03:26 which would explain today why Israel had an incomplete picture of their intentions.
03:30 And it's said today that Gaza militants have stopped using phones and computers and all
03:35 of their sensitive activities is carried out in special protected rooms, protected from
03:40 technological espionage.
03:42 So they may have changed their ways of doing things and also found ways to counter Israel's
03:46 technological dominance.