After eleven days of bombardment, the Israeli government suspended its assault on Gaza with an Egyptian-brokered cease fire on May 21. The offensive killed at least 248 Palestinians, including sixty-six children, and destroyed homes and public infrastructure in Gaza that were already crumbling under the pressure of Israel’s siege and its previous military campaigns.

According to the Israeli military, Hamas projectiles killed one Israeli soldier and another twelve civilians in Israel, including two children and two Thai agricultural workers. These contrasting figures underline a radical disparity in levels of death and destruction.

Mainstream media commentators have attempted to explain — or rather explain away — this disparity by referencing Israel’s much-heralded missile defense system, Iron Dome. An article in the London Times on May 12 suggested that Iron Dome was performing at between 90 and 95 percent accuracy. It cited the comment of an Israeli official: “A few rockets got through, but no one ever said it was 100 per cent fail-proof.”