Videos from Jordan show the missiles streaking across the sky towards Israel, while footage from sources on the ground in Israel shows air defence systems activating, and in some cases being overwhelmed.

One video showed at least nine missiles making impact near military facilities in Israel, while detailed accounts later found many more had broken through.

Dr. Yehoshua Kalisky, Senior Researcher at INSS, a think tank in Tel Aviv, said that Iran’s intention was to “saturate the air defence system” by firing an unprecedented 180 missiles at the same time. 

How Iran broke through

Israel’s air defence system consists of several layers; the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and the Arrow weapon system, the world’s first anti-tactical ballistic missiles (surface-to-air missiles used to shoot down ballistic missiles).  

Each system is designed to shoot missiles out of the sky at different altitudes, with the most recent version of Arrow designed to intercept missiles in space, known as “exo-atmospheric” interceptions. Videos from bystanders caught at least one of these rare sights last Tuesday.