As the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalates, amateur footage of rocket attacks has begun to surface on the Internet.
This video allegedly shows Israel's "Iron Dome" defense system intercepting rockets in the night sky over Beersheba, a city located about 25 miles from Gaza.
The clip is entitled "Pillar of Defense," the same name as Israel's current military operation, according to a Huffington Post translation.
Reddit user "heyyoudvd," who posted the footage in the comments of a similar video on Nov. 14, said that it was taken by a photographer at a wedding which was interrupted by air raid sirens.
First deployed in southern Israel in 2011, Iron Dome is an automated anti-missile defense system that tracks and destroys incoming rockets.
Gaza militants have fired more than 500 rockets in the latest flare-up of violence , and 184 of those had been intercepted by Iron Dome as of Nov. 16, the Lebanon Daily Star reports.
While those numbers suggest a low intercept rate, the system is designed to focus only on rockets that it determines will land in defined protected areas. Trajectories terminating in unpopulated areas are ignored.
Where strikes on populated areas are concerned, Iron Dome has a reputation for intercept rates as high as 90 percent, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“It’s unbelievable, we are very pleased with how Iron Dome has been operating,” a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Force told the Telegraph. “Even if the situation is very difficult for residents of southern Israel, we can only imagine what it would have been like without these defenses.”
Israel has launched a massive operation against militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Israeli air strikes have pounded targets in Gaza while Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. Three Israelis have been killed when a rocket hit their apartment building in Southern Israel. According to Reuters, at least 23 Palestinians have been killed, including 11 civilians, and 250 people have been wounded.