What is Israel's Multi-layered Defense against Iranian Missiles?

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepts ballistic missiles fired from Iran over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 15 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Asharq Al Awsat

11:13-15 June 2025 AD ـ 19 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

11:13-15 June 2025 AD ـ 19 Thul-Hijjah 1446 AH

What is Israel's Multi-layered Defense against Iranian Missiles?

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepts ballistic missiles fired from Iran over the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, 15 June 2025. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Israel has multi-layered air defenses against attacks by Iran, which has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at Israel over the past two days as the Middle East rivals traded heavy blows.
Israel has been honing its air defenses since coming under Iraqi Scud salvoes in the 1991 War, in addition to receiving support from the US, which has provided its ally with advanced anti-missile equipment.
An Israeli military official said on Saturday that the defensive umbrella had an "80 or 90% success rate", but emphasized that no system is 100% perfect, meaning that some Iranian missiles were breaking through the shield.
Here are details of Israel's missile defenses:
ARROW
The long-range Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors, developed by Israel with an Iranian missile threat in mind, are designed to engage incoming targets both in and outside the atmosphere respectively. They operate at an altitude that allows for safe dispersal of any non-conventional warheads.
State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries is the project's main contractor while Boeing is involved in producing the interceptors.
DAVID'S SLING
The mid-range David's Sling system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles fired from 100 km to 200 km (62-124 miles) away.
Developed and manufactured jointly by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and RTX Corp, a US company previously known as Raytheon, David's Sling is also designed to intercept aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.
IRON DOME
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built to intercept the kind of rockets fired by Palestinian movement Hamas in Gaza.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with US backing, it became operational in 2011. Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats such as rockets, mortars and drones in mid-air.
A naval version of the Iron Dome, to protect ships and sea-based assets, was deployed in 2017.
The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area. If not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.
Iron Dome was originally billed as providing city coverage against rockets with ranges of between 4 km and 70 km (2.5-43 miles), but experts say this has since been expanded.
US THAAD SYSTEM
The US military said last October that it had sent the advanced anti-missile system THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, to Israel.
THAAD is a critical part of the US military's air defenses and is designed to intercept and destroy short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats in their terminal phase of flight.
The US military helped to shoot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel on Friday, using ground-based systems, one US official said. A US Navy destroyer in the Eastern Mediterranean also helped to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, Israeli media has reported.
AIR-TO-AIR DEFENSE
Israeli combat helicopters and fighter jets have fired air-to-air missiles to destroy drones that were heading to Israel, military officials have said.
Jordan’s air force also intercepted missiles and drones entering its airspace Friday, its state news agency said.

Netanyahu, Israel’s Arch-Survivor, Set to Face Voter Fury Over Iran Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a news conference in Jerusalem, 15 June 2026, following the announcement of a US-Iran mediated preliminary framework to end regional military hostilities. (EPA)

11:11-17 June 2026 AD ـ 02 Muharram 1448 AH

Netanyahu, Israel’s Arch-Survivor, Set to Face Voter Fury Over Iran Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hopes of clinging to power in an election this autumn have long been shaky, but the interim US deal with Iran has added yet another complication.

US President Donald Trump has opted to end the wars in Iran and Lebanon long before Israel's goals were accomplished, and Netanyahu's boast in March that "we are changing the face of the Middle East" looks increasingly empty.

Already facing corruption allegations, domestic political controversies and criticism over security failings in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, he will now face voters' judgement of his handling of the wars and Israel's relationship with the United States, its most important ally.

Netanyahu, 76, confirmed this week he intends to stand again in an election that must be called by October.

Opinion polls put his right-wing coalition on course to lose but, in a parliamentary system he has dominated for long stretches since the 1990s, few Israelis would entirely discount him weaving together a new government.

NO LASTING VICTORIES

However the election unfolds, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, whom supporters once called "King Bibi", is already the most consequential leader of recent Israeli history and the object ‌of boundless fury to ‌critics.

Netanyahu's Likud party portrays him as the security hawk who staved off demands for a Palestinian state ‌while ⁠urging attacks on Israel's ⁠enemy, Iran, and its regional proxies.

"There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River," Netanyahu said in 2025, adding "for years I have prevented the creation of that terror state, against tremendous pressure".

His hawkish image was dented by security failings before the Hamas attack, for which he has not taken responsibility, and by wars that brought military successes but no lasting victories.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, and Israel's military death toll is at its highest in decades.

Domestic critics say Netanyahu focused security away from the Gaza border and disregarded Hamas as a real threat.

Although Israelis mostly backed the war in Gaza, many turned against Netanyahu's handling of it. Some prominent generals and families of hostages were among critics who said he lacked ⁠a clear strategic plan.

The killings of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, were ‌celebrated in Israel. But Hamas still controls much of Gaza, revolutionary theocrats still rule Iran and Hezbollah ‌has survived in Lebanon.

"Netanyahu lost the war. Netanyahu did not deliver - at the moment of truth he collapsed," opposition leader Yair Lapid said after Trump imposed a new ‌Israel-Hezbollah truce as part of his deal with Iran.

Netanyahu decries such criticism as part of a campaign to diminish Israel's accomplishments.

Warning of a ‌potential nuclear threat from Iran, he said: "If we had not acted in time and with overwhelming force – we would not be here today."

DENYING ACCUSATIONS OF WAR CRIMES

The devastation in Gaza drew accusations abroad of genocide that Israel rejects and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Netanyahu on war crimes charges, which he called absurd.

While he has assiduously courted Western support for Israel, he has also antagonized US presidents and other world leaders. A biographer quoted former US President Joe Biden as in private calling him ‌a "son of a bitch" and "a bad [expletive] guy."

The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and attacks on Palestinians there have meanwhile fueled international calls to revive the peace process.

Anger has gone both ⁠ways - many Israelis think Western criticism of ⁠their Gaza campaign after the Hamas attack was unfair.

Rival politicians accuse Netanyahu of caving to US pressure. But in the US, his close ties to the Republican party and attacks on Democrats have helped upset decades of bipartisan support among politicians. Backing for Israel is falling among voters of both parties.

Trump, the US president he has been closest to, called him "[expletive] crazy" during a June phone call.

LONGEST-SERVING PRIME MINISTER

Born to a prominent historian, Netanyahu went to school in the US before joining the same elite commando unit as his elder brother, Yoni, who was killed leading the rescue of hijacked air passengers at Entebbe, Uganda, in 1976. Netanyahu said that event "changed my life".

He proved at ease in the tough world of Israeli politics, appealing to the gut instincts of his core voter base in gritty towns and settlements.

He became Israel's youngest prime minister in 1996, forging a coalition of settlers, security hawks, the ultra-Orthodox and pro-business voters, and has seen off many opponents, building a string of coalitions and ruthlessly abandoning former allies.

Dogged by a corruption trial, Netanyahu won an unprecedented sixth term in 2022, bringing into government nationalist parties with an openly expansionist agenda.

Their efforts to curb the Supreme Court prompted the biggest protests in Israel's history in 2023.

Netanyahu had sought a legacy through the Abraham Accords - 2020 agreements meant to normalize or expand ties with four Arab countries. He hoped to achieve peace with the Arab world without having to accept Palestinian self-determination.

But the 2023 Hamas attack and Gaza war made that impossible and with Israel's standing in the West badly dented, his legacy will now be much more bitterly contested.

Features

Interim US-Iran Deal Leaves the Thorniest Issue Still to Be Negotiated: Tehran’s Nuclear Program

A view of Milad Tower, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

08:31-17 June 2026 AD ـ 02 Muharram 1448 AH

Interim US-Iran Deal Leaves the Thorniest Issue Still to Be Negotiated: Tehran’s Nuclear Program

A view of Milad Tower, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

The interim deal between the US and Iran is supposed to usher in a two-month period that would address the most divisive issue between the longtime adversaries — Tehran's nuclear program.

Preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb is a key reason that President Donald Trump said he launched the war alongside Israel in February, but the tentative agreement he has trumpeted leaves little runway to negotiate the long-running sticking point. The previous nuclear pact between Iran and world powers, which Trump pulled the US from in his first term, took many months to negotiate.

Few details have been publicly released about the initial deal, set to be officially signed Friday in Switzerland, but it generally calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to global oil shipments, financial incentives for Iran if it meets certain benchmarks, and a 60-day period for talks on ending the country's nuclear program.

There is deep skepticism among both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, pro-Israel advocates and Israel itself that the deal is realistic, workable or would have any effect on nuclear talks.

“My skepticism is Iran itself. What would a good deal look like? No enrichment. And we’ll see if we can get there,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Trump ally and longtime Iran hawk, said Tuesday. “But whether or not we can get phase two, I don’t know.”

A nuclear deal takes commitment to the details

David Schenker, director of the Arab Politics Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that “this administration has proven that it has a hard time keeping its attention on these issues.”

Schenker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs in the first Trump administration, questioned whether the current administration would have the wherewithal to reach a nuclear deal even if the agreement is signed Friday.

“This is the kind of thing that requires dogged attention, attention to detail and numerous technical experts involved,” he said. “Trump loses his attention, moves on, and so does the administration. It’s like they don’t understand Iran’s strategy. They didn’t get it the first time, or the second.”

The Trump administration has maintained its confidence. Vice President JD Vance said much of the technical detail must be negotiated but that the US must see action for Iran to receive incentives like sanctions relief.

“Our plan under this deal is, again, the Iranians are getting a lot of benefits so long as they dismantle that nuclear weapons program,” Vance told Megyn Kelly on her podcast Tuesday.

“People always ask me, ‘Why do you believe it this time?’ I don’t believe them,” he added. “I don’t trust anything that anybody says. I trust what people do. And the way this deal is structured is that as they do more, they receive more. As they do less, they receive less.”

Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

It took over a year and a half to get the previous nuclear deal

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, took more than 18 months to negotiate, starting with secret talks between US and Iranian officials in Oman at the end of then-President Barack Obama’s first term.

They required dozens of direct high-level interventions from Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, not to mention a team of dozens of technical experts traveling to Europe and elsewhere before the conclusion of the negotiations in Vienna, Austria.

Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 before most of its more contentious concessions had come into effect, and there is no indication now that Iran is willing to offer much more.

The JCPOA relied on very technical language and understandings, including limits on uranium enrichment, advanced centrifuges and heavy water production. In exchange, Iran was granted significant sanctions relief, amounting to billions of dollars.

As unhappy as critics were about the JCPOA — Trump called it the “worst deal ever negotiated,” while all Republicans and a number of prominent Democrats voted against it — all sides acknowledge it took more than 18 months to get to an even imperfect agreement.

Republicans say Congress must approve any deal

Republicans say any nuclear deal with Iran should be brought to Congress, as required by law. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he “would certainly anticipate that” the Senate will get the final say.

GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he had little confidence Iran would abide by any agreement.

But Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., one of a handful of senators who has spoken to Vance about the agreement, said the shortened timeline could be an advantage.

“Iran’s modus operandi is to negotiate for the purpose of delaying, so they can rearm themselves,” Marshall said. “I think the president has to give them some type of a finite amount of time, or there’s going to be consequences. So I think it can be done.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., noted that what could help Trump’s negotiators to hammer out a nuclear agreement in such a truncated timeline is that there is “a base" to work from following the Obama-era talks.

Still, the JCPOA "took years to put together. You had allies and even adversaries — China and Russia — around the table, you had the IAEA at the table, the Obama chief negotiator had a Nobel Prize in physics, Ernie Moniz,” Kaine said. “I don’t know that either Jared Kushner or Steve Witkoff have a Nobel Prize. So it’s going to be hard.”

Trump envoys Witkoff and Kushner, neither of whom had any prior experience in nuclear negotiations, made numerous but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement under Omani mediation during the first months of Trump’s second term.

Those tapered off after the US-Israel attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025 after which Pakistan emerged as the main facilitator.

There also is uncertainty about other issues besides nuclear that have been of concern to Arab countries, Israel, Europe and the United States.

It is not clear that any of those issues, including Iran’s ballistic missile program, its support for armed proxies in the region or repression of its own people, will be addressed by either the interim or potential longer-term agreements.

Without significant capitulations by Trump up-front, it is hard to imagine that nuclear negotiations with Iran will take only several months.

“A deal is better than more fighting, but the war America and Israel prosecuted against Iran has fallen short of achieving its stated objectives,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “This agreement is mostly about cleaning up an unnecessary mess and putting the best face on it.”

Features

Trump Goes After Netanyahu as He Pursues Deal with Iran, Putting Their Friendship to the Test

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

07:44-17 June 2026 AD ـ 02 Muharram 1448 AH

Trump Goes After Netanyahu as He Pursues Deal with Iran, Putting Their Friendship to the Test

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump last year that he was the “greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House."

Now, as Trump tries to finalize a deal to end the war with Iran, he's unloading on Netanyahu with rhetoric that no other American leader has dared to use publicly.

He claimed credit for Israel's existence — “without me, there would be no Israel” — and cursed his judgment in interviews. He even described him as “crazy.”

Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister spans four US presidents, and he's frustrated all of them at one point or another. But none has voiced that as openly as Trump, who started the conflict in tandem with Netanyahu.

The tension comes as Trump criticizes recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which threatened to jeopardize negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Trump has been pushing for a deal as he faces political blowback at home, where the war is unpopular and has driven up gasoline prices.

“If Netanyahu gets in between something Trump really wants, and that’s out of this war, he’s prepared to use the leverage that he has,” said Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East issues to Democratic and Republican administrations over two decades.

An agreement is scheduled to be signed on Friday in the Burgenstock resort near the city of Luzern. Speaking on Tuesday at the annual G7 summit in France, Trump said he told Netanyahu that he's been unhappy with his recent moves.

“Without the US, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did,” Trump said. “I have had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”

There has long been a bipartisan consensus around supporting Israel in Washington, but that has frayed in recent years. Liberals have been increasingly outraged by Israel's treatment of Palestinians, especially during the war in Gaza, and conservatives have questioned the importance of longstanding American support for Israel. There are concerns about antisemitism on the left and the right.

Trump’s latest comments drew swift criticism from left-leaning groups.

“He is framing Israel’s mere existence as contingent on him,” said Halie Soifer, who leads the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “It’s deeply offensive to the vast majority of Jews who care about Israel’s future.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris often disagreed with Netanyahu during the war in Gaza, and sometimes they criticized him publicly. But they were more circumspect to avoid facing accusations of being anti-Israel.

Conservative, pro-Israel groups were divided on the seriousness of Trump’s public condemnation of Netanyahu.

Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks described Trump’s criticism as little more than the inevitable disagreement among family members.

Brooks dismissed that any muted criticism of Trump’s comments from his party represented a political mixed message because Trump has been reliably supportive of Israel as president.

“If Biden or Harris said something critical, it came from the position of someone who was hostile toward or didn’t have the same level of support for Israel that President Trump has,” Brooks said.

He noted the first Trump administration’s role in moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza during the president’s second term, among other acts.

Biden had criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, though Trump’s criticism of Netanyahu comes with a “tremendous reservoir of goodwill on this issue that neither Biden nor Harris ever had.”

Pro-Israel advocate Mort Klein said Trump should have kept the comments private, especially in light of his public praise over the years of authoritarian leaders in North Korea and China.

Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, said he worried that Trump was making the comments in public to appeal to Israel critics “because he sees that Americans have become more hostile toward Israel than they’ve ever been.”

“That worries me,” Klein said.

What is Israel's Multi-layered Defense against Iranian Missiles?

What is Israel's Multi-layered Defense against Iranian Missiles?

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