Re: Jackson Hinkle
In light of Iran's allegations about WhatsApp sharing user location data with Israel, it's important to understand how deep Israeli intelligence penetration of big tech firms goes.
I've been working on this topic for 4 years. Here's what I found.
Alan MacLeod
Investigation
Revealed: The Former Israeli Spies Working in Top Jobs at Google, Facebook and Microsoft
October 31st, 2022
By Alan Macleod
https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed- ... on/282413/
A MintPress study has found that hundreds of former agents of the notorious Israeli spying organization, Unit 8200, have attained positions of influence in many of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.
The Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Unit 8200 is infamous for surveilling the indigenous Palestinian population, amassing kompromat https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kompromat on individuals for the purposes of blackmail and extortion. Spying on the world’s rich and famous, Unit 8200 hit the headlines last year, after the Pegasus scandal https://www.mintpressnews.com/pegasus-b ... al/278995/ broke. Former Unit 8200 officers designed and implemented software that spied on tens of thousands of politicians and likely aided in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
According to employment website LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/search/results ... CH&sid=BZ0 there are currently at least 99 former Unit 8200 veterans currently working for Google. This number almost certainly underestimates the scale of the collaboration between the two organizations, however. For one, this does not count former Google employees. Nor does it include those without a public LinkedIn account, or those who do have an account, but have not disclosed their previous affiliations with the high-tech Israeli surveillance unit. This is likely to be a considerable number, as agents are expressly prohibited https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tec ... ef63350000 from ever revealing their affiliation to Unit 8200. Thus, the figure of 99 only represents the number of current (or extremely recent) Google employees who are brazenly flouting Israeli military law by including the organization in their profiles.
Among these include:
Gavriel Goidel https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg: Between 2010 and 2016, Goidel served in Unit 8200, rising to become Head of Learning at the organization, leading a large team of operatives who sifted through intelligence data to
understand patterns of hostile activists,
in his own words, transmitting that information to superiors.
Whether this included any of the over 1000 Gazan civilians Israel killed during their 2014 bombardment of Gaza is unknown. Goidel was recently appointed Head of Strategy and Operations at Google.
Jonathan Cohen https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... edited.jpg: Cohen was a team leader during his time in Unit 8200 (2000-2003). He has since spent more than 13 years working for Google in various senior positions, and is currently Head of Insights, Data and Measurement.
Ori Daniel https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... Daniel.jpg: Between 2003 and 2006, Daniel was a technical operations specialist with Unit 8200. After a stint with Palantir, he joined Google in 2018, rising to become Head of Global Self-Service for Google Waze.
Ben Bariach https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg: For nearly five years between 2007 and 2011, Bariach served as a cyber intelligence officer, where he
Since 2016, he has worked for Google. Between 2018 and 2020, he concentrated on tacklingcommanded strategic teams of elite officers and professionals.
controversial content, disinformation and cyber-security.
Today, he is a product partnership manager for Google in London.
Notably, Google appears to not only accept former Unit 8200 agents with open arms, but to actively recruit current members of the controversial organization. For example, in October 2020, Gai Gutherz https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg left his job as a project leader at Unit 8200 and walked into a full time job at Google as a software engineer. In 2018, Lior Liberman https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg appears to have done the same thing, taking a position as a program manager at Google after 4 years in military intelligence. Earlier this year, she left Google and now works at Microsoft.
Spying on Palestinians
Some might contend that all Israelis are compelled to complete military service, and so, therefore, what is the problem with young people using the tech skills they learned in the IDF in civilian life. In short, why is this Unit 8200-to-Silicon-Valley-pipeline a problem?
To begin with, Unit 8200 is not a run-of-the-mill regiment. Described as “Israel’s NSA” and located on a gigantic base near Beer Sheva in the Negev desert, Unit 8200 is the IDF’s largest unit – and one of its most exclusive. The brightest young minds in the country compete https://www.battery.com/blog/secretive- ... e-harvard/ to be sent to serve at this Israeli Harvard. https://www.battery.com/blog/secretive- ... e-harvard/
Although military service is compulsory for Jewish Israelis, Arab citizens are strongly discouraged from joining the military and are effectively blocked from Unit 8200. Indeed, they are the prime targets of the apartheid state’s surveillance operations.
The Financial Times called https://www.ft.com/content/69f150da-25b ... cb60e8f08c Unit 8200
– the centerpiece of both its burgeoning high-tech industry and of its repressive state apparatus.Israel at its best and worst
Unit 8200 veterans have gone on to produce many of the world’s most downloaded apps, including maps service Waze, and communications app Viber. But in 2014, 43 reservists, including several officers, sent https://www.haaretz.com/2014-09-12/ty-a ... 7b5b310000 a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, informing him they would no longer serve in its ranks due to its involvement in the political persecution of Palestinians.
This consisted of using big data to compile dossiers on huge numbers of the indigenous domestic population, including their medical history, sex lives, and search histories, in order that it could be used for extortion later. If a certain individual needed to travel across checkpoints for crucial medical treatment, permission could be suspended until they complied. Information, such as if a person was cheating on their spouse or was [deleted], is also used as bait for blackmail. One former Unit 8200 man said https://www.ft.com/content/69f150da-25b ... cb60e8f08c that as part of his training, he was assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “[deleted]” so that he could listen out for them in conversations.
An award handed out to the IDF’s Unit 8200 for clandestine operations, June 24, 2020. Photo | IDF
Perhaps most importantly, the dissenters noted, Palestinians as a whole are considered enemies of the state.
the letter read.There’s no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence,
It also claims that much intelligence was gathered not in service of Israel, but for powerful local politicians, who used it as they saw fit.
The letter, despite being intentionally vague and not naming anyone, was considered such a threat that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon announced that those who signed it would be
In short, then, Unit 8200 is partially a spying and extortion organization that uses its access to data to blackmail and extort opponents of the apartheid state. That this organization has so many operatives (literally hundreds) in key positions in big tech companies that the world trusts with our most sensitive data (medical, financial, etc.) should be of serious concern. This is especially true as they do not appear to distinguish between “bad guys” and the rest of us. To Unit 8200, it seems, anyone is fair game.treated as criminals.
Project Nimbus
Google already has a close relationship with the Israeli government. Last year, along with Amazon, it signed a $1.2 billion contract with Israel to provide military surveillance tech services – technology that will allow the IDF to further unlawfully spy on Palestinians, destroy their homes and expand illegal settlements.
The deal led to a staff revolt at both companies, with some 400 employees signing an open letter refusing to cooperate. Google forced one Jewish employee, Ariel Koren, out of the door for her part in resisting the deal. Koren later told MintPress that, https://www.mintpressnews.com/google-wh ... us/281940/
Another link between Google and the Israeli security state comes in the form of cybersecurity group Team8, a collaboration between former Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt, and three ex-Unit 8200 officers, including its former leader, Nadav Zafrir. Team8’s mission, according to a press release, https://team8.vc/news/how-eric-schmidt- ... incubator/ is,Google systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and Muslim voices concerned about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights – to the point of formally retaliating against workers and creating an environment of fear…in my experience, silencing dialogue and dissent in this way has helped Google protect its business interest with the Israeli military and government.
To leverage the offensive and defensive skills of veterans of Israel’s cyberwar efforts to build new security startups.
Meta
Meta – the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has also recruited heavily from the ranks of Unit 8200.
Undoubtedly, one of the most influential people at Meta is Emi Palmor. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg
Palmor is one of 23 individuals who sit on Facebook’s Oversight Board. https://www.oversightboard.com/
Described by Mark Zuckerberg as Facebook’s “Supreme Court”, the Oversight Board collectively decides what content to accept and promote on the platform, and what should be censored, deleted, and suppressed.
Palmor is a Unit 8200 veteran and later went on to become General Director of the Israeli Ministry of Justice. In this role, she directly oversaw the stripping away of Palestinian rights and created a so-called “Internet Referral Unit” which would find and aggressively push Facebook to delete Palestinian content on its platform that the Israeli government objected to.
Other ex-Unit 8200 hold influential positions. For instance, Eyal Klein, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg the head of data science for Facebook Messenger since 2020, served for fully six years as a captain in the controversial Israeli military unit. Today, he is tasked with handling privacy issues for billions of users of Meta’s platforms.
Another former Unit 8200 leader now working in big tech in America is Eli Zeitlin. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg
Two years after leaving Unit 8200, Zeitlin was employed by Microsoft and rose to become the corporation’s senior development lead, becoming, in his own words, the
for the company.go to person in file processing and cloud protection
For the last six years, however, he has worked for Meta, where he leads the company in
– exactly the sort of operation that current Unit 8200 officers likely continue to carry out.prevent[ing] data misuse by third parties
Other Unit 8200 veterans working in influential roles for Facebook include Tom Chet, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg head of activations and production for North American small business; Gilad Turbahn, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg a manager for Meta; engineering manager Ranen Goren; https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg software engineers Gil Osher https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... -Osher.jpg and Yoav Goldstein; https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg security engineering manager Dana Baril; https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... -Baril.jpg and software developer Omer Goldberg. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg
Meanwhile, according to Yonatan Ramot’s https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg LinkedIn biography, earlier this year, he was simultaneously working for Meta while still an active duty manager in Unit 8200.
Spying on the World
Why is having former Unit 8200 officers in charge of security, development and software design at some of the world’s most important communications companies a problem? To start with, one of the military unit’s primary functions is to use their tech know how to carry out spying operations across the world. As Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/201 ... adde240000 in an investigation,
selling invasive surveillance software to dozens of governments, many of them among the world’s worst human rights abusers.Israel has become a leading exporter of tools for spying on civilians,
In Indonesia, for instance, the software was used to create a database of [deleted] people.
Unit 8200 also spies on Americans. Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA regularly passes on the data and communications of U.S. citizens to the Israeli group.
Snowden said. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/opin ... 52619&_r=1I think that’s amazing…It’s one of the biggest abuses we’ve seen,
The most well-known example of Israeli spyware is Pegasus, https://www.mintpressnews.com/pegasus-j ... bb/278042/ a creation of NSO Group, a technically private company staffed primarily by Unit 8200 veterans. The software was used to eavesdrop on more than 50,000 prominent people around the world. This included dozens of human rights defenders, nearly 200 journalists, several Arab royals, and over 600 politicians, including French president Emmanuel Macron, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and Iraqi President Barham Salih.
Meanwhile, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi used the software to dig up dirt on his personal opponents. Other members of his government hacked the phone of a woman accusing the Chief Justice of India of raping her.
Pegasus was also found https://www.mintpressnews.com/pegasus-j ... bb/278042/ installed on murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, implying that NSO was collaborating with the Saudi government, aiding them to silence dissent and criticism.
Pegasus works by sending a text message to a targeted device. If a user clicks on the link provided, it will automatically download the spyware. Once infected, it is possible to track an individual’s location and movements, take screenshots, turn on the phone’s camera and microphone, retrieve messages and steal passwords.
But while the NSO’s Pegasus made worldwide news, another firm, more worrying and dangerous, has flown under the radar. That firm is Toka, established by former Israeli defense minister and prime minister, Ehud Barak, with the help of a number of Unit 8200 officers. Toka can infiltrate any device connected to the internet, including Amazon echoes, televisions, fridges and other home appliances. Last year, Journalist Whitney Webb told https://www.mintpressnews.com/pegasus-j ... bb/278042/ MintPress that the company effectively acts as a front group for the Israeli government’s spying operations.
A third private spy firm filled with Unit 8200 graduates is Candiru. The Tel Aviv-based company barely exists, officially. It does not have a website. And if you go to its headquarters, https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-new ... 7ff84b0000 there is no indication that you are in the right place. Nevertheless, it is widely believed https://www.securityweek.com/secretive- ... y-exploits that Candiru was behind malware attacks observed in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Qatar and Uzbekistan.
The company is named after a parasitic Amazonian fish that is said (apocryphally) to swim up human urine streams and enter the body via the urethra. It is an apt analogy for a firm that spends its time finding security flaws in Android and iOS operating systems and browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari, using this knowledge to spy on unsuspecting targets.
The utility of these technically private Israeli spy groups filled to the brim with ex-military intelligence figures is that it allows the government some measure of plausible deniability when carrying out attacks against foreign nations. As Haaretz explained, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tec ... 7f77900000
MicrosoftWho owns [these spying companies] isn’t clear, but their employees aren’t soldiers. Consequently, they may solve the army’s problem, even if the solution they provide is imperfect.
Data from LinkedIn suggests that there are at least 166 former Unit 8200 members who went on to work for Microsoft. In addition to those already mentioned, others include Ayelet Steinitz, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... einitz.jpg Microsoft’s former Head of Global Strategic Alliances, Senior Software Engineer Tomer Lev, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Senior Product Managers, Maayan Mazig, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... ited-2.jpg Or Serok-Jeppa https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Yuval Derman. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg
Notably, the Seattle-based giant also heavily leans on ex-Unit 8200 professionals to design and upkeep its global security apparatus. Examples of this phenomenon include Security Researchers Lia Yeshoua, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... ited-2.jpg Yogev Shitrit, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Guni Merom, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Meitar Pinto https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Yaniv Carmel, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Threat Protection Software Engineer Gilron Tsabkevich, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Data Scientist Danielle Poleg, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Threat Intelligence Officer Itai Grady https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Security Product Manager Liat Lisha. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... Lisha-.jpg
In Merom, Carmel and Pinto’s cases, they went straight from Unit 8200 into Microsoft’s team, again suggesting that Microsoft is actively recruiting from the regiment.
Other Microsoft security products such as Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Azure secure cloud computing are also designed and maintained by ex-Unit 8200 individuals. These include former Senior Architect Michael Bargury, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... rgury-.jpg Principal Software Engineering Manager Shlomi Haba, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Senior Software Engineering Managers Yaniv Yehuda, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... ited-3.jpg Assaf Israel https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Michal Ben Yaacov, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Senior Product Manager Tal Rosler, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg Software Engineer Adi Griever, https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg and Product Manager Yael Genut. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-conten ... scaled.jpg
This is notable, as it was reported https://www.industrialcybersecuritypuls ... pt-groups/ that malware likely produced by Unit 8200 was used to attack Microsoft products, such as its Windows operating system. It reportedly exploited loopholes it found to attack control systems, delete hard drives, and shut down key systems, such as the energy infrastructure of Iran.
Big tech, big governments
None of this means that all or even any of the individuals are moles – or even anything but model employees today. But the sheer amount of people graduating from an organization such as Unit 8200 and going on to influence the world’s largest communications companies certainly causes concern.
Unit 8200 certainly has a reputation for excellence in its field. The trouble is that their craft includes spying, extortion, gross violations of personal rights, and the hacking of exactly the tech companies that are now hiring them en masse. This does not appear to be a poacher-turned-gamekeeper scenario, however; there is no indication Silicon Valley is hiring whistleblowers.
Of course, Israel is far from the only country that attempts to spy on foes or manipulate the public. However, former spies from adversary countries such as Russia, Venezuela or Iran are not being hired in their hundreds to design, maintain and oversee the largest channels of public communication. In fact, this study could find no examples of ex-FSB (Russia) ex-SEBIN (Venezuela) or former agents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence working at Silicon Valley corporations.
MintPress has previously documented how, in recent years, big tech companies like Twitter, https://www.mintpressnews.com/twitter-h ... ts/281114/ Facebook, https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-ex-c ... cy/281307/ Google, https://www.mintpressnews.com/national- ... ts/281490/ TikTok https://www.mintpressnews.com/nato-tikt ... ts/280336/ and Reddit https://www.mintpressnews.com/jessica-a ... nt/277639/ have hired hundreds of spooks from the CIA, NSA, FBI, Secret Service, NATO, and other intelligence agencies. The fact that Unit 8200 is also a recruitment reserve underlines how strong an ally Israel is considered in the West.
However, it also highlights the increasing intersection between Silicon Valley and big government and further undermines any pretense that big tech companies are on our side in the fight to secure and maintain privacy online.
Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News
Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting https://www.routledge.com/Bad-News-from ... 1138489233 and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, https://www.routledge.com/Propaganda-in ... NZ1Oo7KD-E as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.
Re: Jackson Hinkle
Is that why, he wasn't confirmed? Hmmm
NUMEC: How Israel Stole the Atomic Bomb
NUMEC: How Israel Stole the Atomic Bomb
Re: Jackson Hinkle
Weizmann Institute suffers over $500 million in damage from missile strike
Three key research buildings destroyed; rare materials and scientific samples lost.
Shahar Ilan
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/ ... e_vignette
19.06.25
The Weizmann Institute of Science estimates that the missile strike on its campus on Sunday caused damages totaling 2 billion shekels (approximately $570M). Three research buildings were severely damaged, and numerous other buildings sustained partial damage. This estimate includes only physical damage to infrastructure and does not account for the extensive scientific losses, including destroyed samples and rare materials, some of which were foundational to ongoing research.
Among the affected facilities were life sciences buildings, including those dedicated to cancer research, and an environmental sciences center. A senior academic official estimated that the construction of a basic, unfurnished laboratory building costs approximately $50 million, and with advanced scientific equipment, the total could reach $100 million.
Another senior official noted that laboratory buildings rank among the most expensive types of infrastructure, on par with hospitals. The estimated cost is approximately 25,000 shekels per square meter, including standard lab equipment, resulting in a total of 100 to 250 million shekels per building. This figure does not include highly specialized equipment, which can individually cost millions of dollars.
said Prof. Sarel Fleishman of the Faculty of Biochemistry at Weizmann.The damage to some laboratories is catastrophic,
Fleishman’s own lab suffered relatively minor damage, and he is now hosting displaced colleagues.In life science labs, much of the knowledge is embedded in the devices and freezers, materials developed by researchers over many years. Now we are scrambling to extract what we can and relocate as fast as possible.
He explained that these labs study evolutionary and physiological mechanisms, often with applications in drug discovery and cancer diagnostics.
he said.Entire research wings have been destroyed. Some labs have lost all their materials, materials whose value lies in years of expertise and effort. This isn’t just infrastructure loss; it’s decades of student research and life-saving work that may be gone forever,
It will take years to rebuild. But I believe we will overcome this. The Weizmann community is resilient, and the support we’re receiving globally is invaluable.
Re: Jackson Hinkle
Middle East
How has Iran managed to breach Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system?
For many years, Israel’s multilayered air defence system has repelled missile attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah. Two experts explain how Iranian missiles have broken through
Alex Croft
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 72843.html
Thursday 19 June 2025
Israel’s air defences have been called heavily into action since Israel sparked a conflict with Iran on Friday (AP)
A bloody conflict https://www.independent.co.uk/news/moss ... 71543.html between Israel https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/i ... 70723.html and Iran https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 70357.html entered its sixth day on Wednesday, as both countries exchanged heavy air strikes. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 70362.html
The conflict began with Israeli strikes on nuclear sites in Iran https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/iran and on its capital of Tehran https://www.independent.co.uk/news/isra ... 71210.html on Friday. Israel https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/israel says Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapon, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 70714.html something which Tehran https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/tehran has consistently denied.
At least 224 people have been killed in Iran and 24 people killed in Israel since the conflict erupted last week, according to authorities in both countries. Iran has not been regularly updating its death toll, and Washington-based group Human Rights Activists says at least 585 people have been killed as of Wednesday.
The Iron Dome https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/iron-dome is a surface-to-air missile system which tracks and intercepts projectiles headed towards populated areas in Israel. It is one of many defence systems used by the IDF, including the US-made Thaad system, David’s Sling, and the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 defences.
Israeli officials have long accepted that its air defence system is not 100 per cent effective. Here The Independent looks at why Iran’s attacks have breached Israel’s strong defences. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 70765.html
What systems make up Israel’s advanced air defence?
The Iron Dome is the best known of Israel’s air defence systems, designed to target shorter-range rockets which larger systems are unable to detect.
David’s Sling is designed to destroy longer-range rockets. Arrow 2 targets short-to-medium range ballistic missiles and Arrow 3 targets long-range ballistic missiles.
The most recent addition to Israel’s air defence is the US-made Thaad battery, which can intercept missiles inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It targets enemy missiles in their last stage of flight, within around 150-200km.
Israel’s air defence ‘effective but not invincible’
Dr Marion Messmer, a senior research fellow of security studies at Chatham House, said Israel’s air defences may not be as effective as many believe.
Speaking of the Iron Dome in particular, she told The Independent it has
She added:better PR than is actually warranted.
At the end of the day, it's an air defence system. It's a very effective air defence system. But no air defence is completely unbreachable.
Smoke billows from a fire in a building in Herzliya near Tel Aviv following a fresh barrage of Iranian rockets on Tuesday (AFP/Getty)
Given the scale and scope of Iran’s strikes on Israel https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/is ... 70760.html - which have been more sustained than attacks in recent years - Dr Messmer said it is not a surprise that some of the missiles and drones were able to get through.
Iran’s missiles pose new type of challengePart of the Iranian strategy is essentially to fire a lot, and therefore to hope that the interceptors won't be able to shoot everything down, which is one of the things that we've seen.
Experts believe that Iran may have also used hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs), which can manoeuvre and glide at hypersonic speed, making them a lot harder to intercept.
Dr Messmer explained.If you've got something that can manoeuvre, then obviously you can either pre-program an erratic flight path, or you can change it if you see that interceptors have been launched. That then makes it much easier to avoid any interception,
Iran's retaliatory strikes on Israel
Dr Messmer maintains that the Iron Dome’s defence rates are still “incredibly impressive”, but added a caveat: many of the rockets previously shot down by the system come in smaller numbers with predictable flight paths and from predictable sites. These have mostly been fired by Hamas https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/hamas militants in Gaza. https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/gaza
agrees Dr Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher in King’s College London’s War Studies department.No air defence system is unbreachable,
A projectile crosses the sky above Jerusalem (EPA)
Volume of missiles ‘leaving Israel’s air defence overwhelmed’
Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Monday said they had employed a new method that caused Israel's multi-layered defence systems to target each other and allowed Iran to successfully hit many targets.
Dr Miron speculated that this may have been done by positioning decoy drones near Israeli defence missiles, in such a way that it would cause another Israeli missile to wipe it out.
But the main cause of the most significant breach to Israel’s air defence in years, she said, is the sheer “overload” of Iranian missiles which left it “overwhelmed”.
The rare aspect of the last five days is the sheer number of missiles sent by Iran, she added, rather than the air defence unexpectedly faltering.
Iran would have sent a number of decoys, causing Iron Dome projectiles and other defence missiles to be wasted on what is in effect scrap metal, Dr Miron added.
Electronic warfare also could have been used, Dr Miron added.
Suppressing the radar is another option - the missile will have a component which allows it to fly invisible.