Israel is accelerating the roll-out of laser-based interceptors as part of a new plan to shoot down aerial threats, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has revealed.

Israeli defense officials predicted last June that the laser systems, which can overheat drones and rockets, would be ready for action in 2025 – but Bennett announced a dramatically shortened timeline.

"Within a year already, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally, first in the south, then in other places," he said in a speech. Gaza, from which Hamas and other militant groups have regularly fought with Israeli forces, is to the south of most of Israel's major population centers. 

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"And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers which will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs, and other threats," he told Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.

Bennett spoke about Israel's efforts to counter what it claims is an Iranian attempt to encircle it with forces capable of paralyzing its infrastructure via relatively inexpensive barrages. 

Palestinian militants and their allies have fired improvised rockets and drones into Israel, with the general aim of liberating Palestine from Israeli occupation. Israeli forces have attacked Gaza, and other areas linked to the militants, primarily with airstrikes. 

Israel's laser system would be an addition to its current air defenses based on Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow – systems that launch interceptor missiles, each costing from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. The Israeli military budget is bolstered by the U.S. providing military aid of around $3.8 bn annually. 

"The equation will be overturned – they will invest much, and we little," Bennett said.

"If we can intercept a missile or rocket with an electrical pulse that costs a few dollars, we will essentially neutralize the ring of fire that Iran has set up... This new generation of air defense can also serve our friends in the region, who are also exposed to grave threats from Iran and its proxies."