There is also the matter of the cost differential, especially if saturation attacks persist, as they have in this recent fighting, which can begin to drain existing stocks of Tamir interceptors and prompt the need to replenish them. The exact unit cost of the current generation Tamir interceptor is unclear, with past reports putting that price tag at
between $40,000 and $100,000. Even at $100,000, they are very
low cost when compared to other anti-missile interceptors and other surface-to-air missiles.
At the same time, even at that lower price point, if Israel has fired more than 200 of them in the past few days, that is more than $8 million worth of Tamirs. By that same calculation, 1,000 successful intercepts would mean firing off missiles worth a total of $40 million.
During the last major conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups in Gaza in 2014, Israeli
received approximately $225 million in emergency aid from the United States specifically to boost its Tamir stockpiles. That conflict lasted around seven weeks, during which the Palestinians fired at least 4,564 rocket and mortar projectiles, according to the IDF.
While we don't know the exact cost of the different types of rockets Hamas and PIJ have been firing at Israel, they are unguided weapons and are almost certainly orders of magnitude cheaper than Tamir interceptors. Past reports have said that Hamas' older, lower-end
Qassam rockets have cost between
just $500 and $600 to make, each.
