Intercepting and destroying projectiles in midair is costly business. Rockets, like the Qassams and Katyushasfired into Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas, cost around $1,000 each. The counter-missiles that theIron Dome, Israel's rocket defense system, uses to destroy incoming rockets are far more expensive: about$40,000 a pop. This disparity, and the accompanying prioritization of what gets defended, means the Iron Dome ignoresanything smaller thanrockets and artillery shells.
The clash between Israel and Hamas-backed fighters in the Gaza Strip continued over the weekend and into today, with the death toll in Gaza inching toward 100 (there were 91 recorded deaths as of Tuesday morning). But amid the troubling images and stark numbers trickling out of the conflict there, one set of numbers represents a rare bright spot: the number of Hamas rockets that Israel's "Iron Dome" missile-defense shield is knocking out the sky.
