(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) A senior Israeli intelligence official told NBC News on Thursday that Israel intercepted only 65% of the missiles Iran fired at Israeli territory over the previous 24 hours, as the Iranian military has started firing more advanced weapons.
“Iran still has very advanced missiles, and they are making use of them,” the official said, adding that Israel has less time to react to the missile launches.
“Until yesterday, we got an early warning of about 10 to 11 minutes before the missiles actually fell. But this morning, it was six or seven minutes. It means that the missiles were probably much faster than the previous ones,” he said.
The official said that Iran also has a “navigation system for the final phase of the attack,” enabling it to launch precise strikes.
He also threw cold water on the idea that regime change was imminent, saying that Iran has the “resolve and the ability to continue and to sustain the attacks, so we have to be much more careful whenever we speak about the imminent collapse of the regime, which is far from being true.”
As Iran is firing more advanced missiles, Israel is running low on its US-made Arrow interceptors that it needs to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US has been aware of Israel’s capacity problem and has been helping intercept Iranian missiles using systems on the ground, warships, and planes, dwindling the US’s own munitions supply.
According to The New York Times, Israel is using interceptors faster than it can produce them, forcing it to ration the munitions. “Already, Israel’s military has had to conserve its use of interceptors and is giving greater priority to the defense of densely populated areas and strategic infrastructure, according to the officials,” the paper said.
It’s unclear how sustainable the current operations are for Iran, as it’s not known how many long-range ballistic missiles the country has.
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
