Twitter / Business Insider
- Israel's military fired off a salvo of ten or so missile interceptors in a bizarre mistake that likely cost the country around a half million dollars.
- Israel said it mistook machine gun fire and sirens for rocket launches, which is a pretty bizarre mistake to make.
Israel's military fired off a salvo of ten or so missile interceptors in a bizarre mistake that likely cost the country around a half million dollars.
Israel activated its Iron Dome missile
But the missiles were fired in error, Israel later admitted.
"Following reports of sirens sounding in southern Israel, unusual machine gun fire towards Israel was identified. No rocket launches were identified. The (military) is looking into the circumstances which led to the activation of the Iron Dome system," a statement from Israel's army said.
A Hamas spokesperson also told Reuters that no rockets had been fired towards Israel
Israel's Iron Dome missile shield is composed of multiple different missile defense systems and batteries, and none of them run cheap. It's likely the missiles cost anywhere from $40,000 to $90,000 each.
Typically, the Iron Dome has a high rate of success and is one of the world's more battle-tested, effective missile defenses. Machine gun fire and sirens, while loud, hardly match the profile of a rocket launch, and isn't entirely uncommon around the Gaza strip, making it a bizarre mistake to make.
In warfare, it's common for adversaries to use cost imposing strategies against each other. Prompting hundreds of thousands of dollars in Israeli missile launches with some cheap machine gun fire would be an extremely efficient execution of such a strategy.
Below are a few videos of the missile launches:
מטח יירוטים של כיפת ברזל באזור הדרום #הסלמה_בדרום @Itsik_zuarets pic.twitter.com/0J6UowuXvo
- כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 25, 2018
IDF says error identifying machine gun fire from Hamas drills near border as rockets caused dozens of Iron Dome interceptors to be launched tonight. Each interceptor costs an estimated 50-90,000 dollars. Watch video of claimed mishap: pic.twitter.com/yqbvboEsJS
- Israel Breaking (@IsraelBreaking) March 25, 2018
FOOTAGE: #Israel's Iron Dome was activated tonight by false alarm that was triggered by #Hamas machine-guns, wasting dozens of interceptors of which each costs an estimated $ 50,000 - 90,000. #GAZA #PALESTINEpic.twitter.com/OUbja0sZQe
- 24 Resistance Axis (@Syria_Hezb_Iran) March 25, 2018