Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel

Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip have occurred since 2001. Between 2001 and January 2009, over 8,600 rockets had been launched, leading to 28 deaths and several hundred injuries, as well as widespread psychological trauma and disruption of daily life. According to research done by the Social work department at the Sapir Academic college, Estimated 15,000 people from Sderot are suffering from PTSD and 1000 are treated within the psychiatric (mental health center) community.

The weapons, often generically referred to as Qassams, were initially crude and short-range, mainly affecting the Israeli city of Sderot and other communities bordering the Gaza Strip. However, in 2006 more sophisticated rockets began to be deployed, reaching the larger coastal city of Ashkelon, and by early 2009 major cities Ashdod and Beersheba had been hit by Katyusha , WS-1B and Grad rockets,and in 2011-2012 to the cities of Kiryat Gat and Gedera. As of 2009 at least five mortars and at least one rocket have been fired with warheads containing white phosphorus recovered from munitions that Israel fired on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. In 2006 militants claimed that chemical weapons had been used, however the IDF stated they could not find evidence supporting the claim and no one in Israel had reported such a weapon actually being used.

Attacks have been carried out by all Palestinian armed groups, and, prior to the 2008–2009 Gaza War, were consistently supported by most Palestinians, although the stated goals have been mixed. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by United Nations, European Union and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Defenses constructed specifically to deal with the weapons include fortifications for schools and bus stops as well as an alarm system named Red Color. Iron Dome, a system to intercept short-range rockets, was developed by Israel and first deployed in the spring of 2011 to protect Beersheba and Ashkelon, but officials and experts warned that it would not be completely effective. Shortly thereafter, it intercepted a Palestinian Grad rocket for the first time.

The attacks were a stated cause of the Gaza blockade, the Gaza War (Dec 27, 2008 – Jan 21, 2009) and other Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, including Operation Rainbow (May 2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict, Operation Autumn Clouds (2006), and Operation Hot Winter (2008).

Overview

A boy carries a spent Qassam rocket in Sderot

rocket range

Attacks began in 2001. Since then, nearly 4,800 rockets have hit southern Israel, just over 4,000 of them since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. The range of the rockets has increased over time. The original Qassam rocket has a range of about 10 km (6.2 mi) but more advanced rockets, including versions of the old Soviet Grad or Katyusha have hit Israeli targets 40 km (25 mi) from Gaza.

Some analysts see the attacks as a shift away from reliance on suicide bombing, which was previously Hamas's main method of attacking Israel, and an adoption of the rocket tactics used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Participating groups

All the Palestinian armed groups carry out rocket and mortar attacks, with varying frequency. The main groups are Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hamas is the de-facto governing authority in the Gaza Strip, while Fatah holds the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority.

Islamic Jihad has involved other Palestinians in the activities, running summer camps where children were taught how to hold a Qassam rocket launcher. One Islamic Jihad rocket maker, Awad al-Qiq, was a science teacher and headmaster at a United Nations school. Christopher Gunness, a UNRWA spokesman, said the UN had "zero-tolerance policy towards politics and militant activities in our schools", but that they "cannot police people's minds."

Palestinian security forces say that they do little or nothing to prevent rocket attacks or to hold responsible the militants who launch them, according to a 2007 report by Human Rights Watch

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center estimated that in 2007 the proportions of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip were:

34% – Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Al Quds)

22% – Hamas (Qassam)

 8% – Fatah (Kafah)

 6% – Popular Resistance Committees (al Nasser)

30% – unknown

History

2001–06

Main article: List of rocket and mortar attacks in Israel in 2001 through 2006

A house in Sderot hit by a Qassam rocket, 2007

Rockets were originally fired mainly on Sderot, an Israeli city on the border of the Gaza Strip. Sderot's population density is slightly greater than that of the Gaza Strip. Due to this, and despite the imperfect aim of these homemade projectiles, they have caused deaths and injuries, as well as significant damage to homes and property, psychological distress and emigration from the city. Ninety percent of the city's residents have had a rocket exploding in their street or an adjacent one.

On March 28, 2006, while Israelis went to general elections, the first Katyusha rocket from Gaza was fired at Israel. The rocket fell near the Itfah kibbutz on the outskirts of Ashkelon and caused no damage or casualties. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Several months later, On July 5, 2006, a rocket hit the center of Ashkelon for the first time, striking an empty high school. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the attack, which was claimed by Hamas, an "escalation of unprecedented gravity", but the event was quickly overshadowed by the 2006 Lebanon War.

On 25 of May 2006 the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group that published on April 2006 that they had been launching long range missile on Israeli cities, sent a letter to Ramattan that they had developed Chemical and biological biological weapons and threaten with Chemical warfare . later that month report of use of chemical weapons by that group had been published in the media .

2007

On January 5, 2007 Palestinian militants fired a Katyusha rocket at Ashkelon. The Katyusha has a range of 18–20 kilometers, and the rocket was fired from the al-Attara region in the northern Gaza Strip, traveling about 17 kilometers before reaching its target. No one was hurt in the Katyusha attack. Israel killed in response at least 9 people. On October 7, 2007 the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for a Grad-type Katyusha that hit Netivot. However, during this period Katyusha attacks from Gaza remained rare.

2008–09

Main articles: List of rocket and mortar attacks in Israel in 2008 and 2009

A Grad missile hits Beersheba, 2009.

Israeli boy crippled by Palestinian rocket fire.

In January 2008 the border between Gaza and Egypt was breached by Hamas. It allowed them to bring in Russian and Iranian made rockets with a larger range.

Two premature Palestinian babies, admitted to the Barzilai Medical Center's NICU unit, were among the civilian targets of Iranian Grad rockets launched by Hamas at Ashkelon. Their mother Beit Lahiya was told by Palestinians doctors in Gaza that two embryos out of the four she carried died in her womb, and if she wants to save two other babies, she had to go to Israel. Israeli official granted her entrance in 24 hours after it was requested. She gave the birth to a boy and a girl in Barzilai Medical Center on February 25, 2008. On the second day after the birth, Grad rocket hit the hospital ground only 200 meters away from Palestinian mother and her new born twins.

In the first half of 2008, the number of attacks rose sharply, consistently totaling several hundred per month. In addition, Ashkelon was hit many times during this period by Grad rockets.

From June 19 to December 19, 2008, an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was in effect. During this time, only several dozen rockets were fired at Israel, a marked decrease from the pre-ceasefire period. Hamas imprisoned some of those firing rockets.

During the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, Palestinian militants began to deploy improved Qassam and factory-made rockets with a range of 40 kilometers. Rockets reached major Israeli cities Ashdod, Beersheba and Gedera for the first time, putting one-eighth of Israel's population in rocket range and raising concerns about the safety of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Israel's largest population center, as well as the Negev Nuclear Research Center. According to Isaeli authorities, 571 rockets and 205 mortar shells landed in Israel during the 22 days of the conflict.

On January 18, 2009, following a unilateral ceasefire declaration by Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced that they would cease rocket attacks for one week. After that, rockets and mortar attacks continued almost daily through February.

2010

Main article: List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2010

According to the Israel Security Agency's annual report, Palestinians carried out 150 rocket launches and 215 mortar launches at Israel during the year. This represented a decrease in both types of attacks compared to 2009, in which there were 569 rocket launches and 289 mortar launches.

The report stated that Iran succeeded in smuggling 1,000 mortar shells and hundreds of short-range rockets into the Gaza Strip over the course of the year. The security agency also warned that the Sinai Desert was turning into Hamas's "backyard" for operations and storage of arms. 2010 saw two unique instances of Hamas firing rockets from the Sinai at the southern Israeli port city of Eilat.

On 18 March, Thai national Manee Singmueangphon was killed by a Palestinian Qassam rocket launched at a greenhouse in Netiv Haasara. Both Ansar al Sunna, an Islamist group thought to have links with al-Qaeda in Iraq, and al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the attack.

On 30 July, a Hamas Grad missile hit a residential neighborhood in the heart of the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. No one was physically injured, but eight people suffered from shock and surrounding apartment buildings sustained damage.

On 2 August, Hamas militants in Egypt fired seven Iranian-made Grad missiles at the resort city of Eilat in the extreme south of Israel. Overshot missiles hit the Jordanian city of Aqaba, killing one person and wounding several.

On 20 October, an accidental explosion occurred at a Hamas Qassam rocket training site in the densely crowded Tel As-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Thirteen people were injured by flying shrapnel, including five children and three women.

2011

Main article: List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2011

Over the course of 2011, 680 rockets, mortars and Grad missiles were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. At the very end of 2010, Palestinian Islamic Jihad stated that it and other Palestinians militant groups in the Gaza Strip would temporarily halt rocket attacks against Israel. However, by 7 January, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a mortar attack that injured three agricultural workers, and the group was responsible for most of the attacks on Israel in the first two weeks of the year. On 12 January, the group declared again that it would cease firing rockets. Multiple, unclaimed rocket and mortar attacks occurred on 16, 17 and 18 January.

On 2 January, it was revealed that two East Jerusalem Arabs, employees of the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, were arrested for suspected involvement in an aborted Hamas plot to fire a missile at Teddy Stadium during a soccer match. The two were charged the following day with weapons trafficking.

On 15 March, Israel seized the Victoria, a ship containing concealed Iranian missiles destined for the Gaza Strip.

On 27 March, Israel first deployed the new Iron Dome missile defense system to protect Beersheba. The city, one of Israel's largest, had recently been targeted again by Palestinian missiles after being safe since the 2008-2009 Gaza War. A week later, a second battery was deployed to protect Ashkelon. On 7 April, the Ashkelon battery successfully intercepted a Palestinian Grad missile fired at the city, marking the first successful interception of a short range rocket in history. On 31 August, Israel deployed a third battery outside Ashdod before the new school year. As of that date, Iron Dome had intercepted several dozen Gazan rockets at an estimated cost of $100,000 per interception, not including the price of the system itself.

On 4 April, Israel indicted alleged Hamas "rocket godfather" Dirar Abu Sisi in the Beersheba District Court. Abu Sisi had reportedly been captured by Israel in the Ukraine a month prior. He denied any wrongdoing.

On 7 April, Hamas militants fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at an Israel school bus. The sole passenger on board, 16-year-old boy Daniel Viflic, was killed.

On 18 August, a series of cross-border attacks were carried out in southern Israel near the Egyptian border. The initial attacks sparked several days of clashes between Israel and Palestinian militant groups that resulted in substantial casualties to both sides.

2012

Main article: List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2012

On January 2012 mortars with chemical warheads had been used against Sderot and Ashkelon.

Until April 2012 more then 360 rocket and mortar attacks had been lunched (~300 during the March 2012 Gaza–Israel clashes).

Tactics

Khaled Jaabari, Gaza commander of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, said that the group uses Google Earth to determine targets. Rocket fire is often timed for the early morning when children head to school.

A source close to Hamas described the movement's tactic of launching projectiles from between homes during the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict: "They fired rockets in between the houses and covered the alleys with sheets so they could set the rockets up in five minutes without the planes seeing them. The moment they fired, they escaped, and they are very quick." Videos released by Hamas in 2011 show Qassam rockets being fired from residential areas and mosques. According to Yedioth Aharonoth journalist Elior Levy, "Gaza terror cells choose to fire from urban areas knowing that the Israel Defense Forces refrain from intercepting them for fear of hurting civilians. The killing of civilians in Gaza also serves the terrorists' purposes who claim Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza."

denial of service attacks on emergency services

See also: Palestinian_political_violence § Denial_of_service_attacks_on_the_emergency_services

There have been a number of reports in the Israeli press about denial of service attacks by Palestinians on the Magen David Adom and other emergency call lines after rocket and mortar attacks, that resulted in a development of a filtering system that had been installed in MDA and other emergency call systems during 2006-2008.

Israeli defensive measures

See also: Civil defense in Israel

Fortifications and bomb shelters

Bomb shelter in Sderot

Residential buildings and homes in Israel are generally equipped with bomb shelters. However, as of February 2009, approximately 5,000 residents of southern Israel, mostly elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union, lacked proper reinforced rooms or reasonable access to public shelters. Many Sderot families sleep together in a single fortified room in their homes.

In March 2008 the Israeli Government placed 120 fortified bus stops in Sderot, following a Defense Ministry assessment that most qassam-related injuries and fatalities were caused by shrapnel wounds in victims on the street. As of January 2009, all schools in Sderot have been fortified against rockets; fortifications consist of arched canopies over roofs. However, on January 3, 2009 a Grad rocket penetrated the fortification of a school in Ashkelon.

In March 2009, Sderot inaugurated a reinforced children's recreation center built by the Jewish National Fund. The purpose of the center, which has "$1.5 million worth of reinforced steel", is to provide a rocket-proof place for children to play. Sderot also has a "missile-protected playground," with concrete tunnels painted to look like caterpillars.

Red Dawn

Main article: Red Color

The Israeli government has installed a "Red Color" (צבע אדום) alarm system to warn citizens of impending rocket attacks, although its effectiveness has been questioned. The system currently operates in a number of southern Israeli cities within rocket range. When the signature of a rocket launch is detected originating in Gaza, the system automatically activates the public broadcast warning system in nearby Israeli communities and military bases. A two-tone electronic audio alert (with a pattern of high, 2 second pause, high-low) is broadcast twice, followed by a recorded female voice intoning the Hebrew words for Red Color ("Tzeva Adom"). The entire program is repeated until all rockets have impacted and no further launches are detected. In Sderot, it gives residents approximately 15 seconds warning of an incoming rocket. The system was installed in Ashkelon between July 2005 and April 2006.

Iron Dome

Main article: Iron Dome

Iron Dome (Hebrew: כיפת ברזל) is a mobile system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems designed to intercept short-range rockets with a range less than 70 km. In February 2007, the system was selected by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak as the Israeli Defense Force's defense system against short range rockets. On July 7, 2008, the first test of the system was completed successfully, and the first operational test is expected to take place at the end of 2009. The system was scheduled to be operational in 2010, but it temporaly delayed. In March, the system was deployed in several strategic sites near major Israeli southern cities. On April 7, 2011, the system successfully intercepted a Grad rocket launched from Gaza for the first time.

The system is composed of a radar, a control center, and interceptor missiles. Very limited information has been made available about the system in the Israeli media, but from this information it is known that the interceptor missile (named Tamir) is equipped with electro-optic sensors and several steering fins, providing it with high maneuverability. The system's radar identifies the rocket launch, extrapolates its flight path and transfers this information to the control center, which then uses this information to determine the projected impact location. If the projected target justifies an interception, then an interceptor missile is fired.

Effects

Casualties

See also: Israel casualties of war

A Qassam rocket is displayed in Sderot town hall against a background of pictures of residents killed in rocket attacks

Rockets and mortars have killed 16 people within Israel up to 2008. Most of those killed were civilians, including four children. In addition, hundreds of Israelis have been injured. Injuries have also occurred mainly among civilians, several of whom were injured very seriously.

The projectiles have also killed six Palestinians and injured dozens more. On June 8, 2005, rockets fired at the Israeli settlement of Ganei Tal killed two Palestinian workers and one Chinese worker in a packing plant. On August 2, 2005, a rocket apparently launched by Islamic Jihad killed a 6-year-old boy and his father in Beit Hanoun. On December 26, 2008 a mortar aimed at Israel killed two Palestinian girls in the Gaza Strip, aged 5 and 12.

Fatalities and rockets fired

Precisely counting the number of rockets fired is impossible, and differing estimates have been given. The figures below are attributed to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to September 4, 2005, the majority of attacks were against Israeli targets within the Gaza Strip.

Year	Fatalities	Number of Rockets fired	Number of Mortars fired	Total
2001	1	4		4+
2002	1	35		35+
2003	1	155		155+
2004	5	281		281+
2005	6	401	854	1,255
2006	4	1,722	55	1,777
2007	2	1,276	1,531	2,807
2008	8	2,048	1,668	3,716
2009	0	569	289	858
2010	1	150	215	365
2011	2	419	261	680
2012	0	162	5	14

Refugees

Israeli boy standing in the remains of his home after it was destroyed by a Qassam rocket

In May 2007, a significant increase in rocket attacks from Gaza prompted the temporary evacuation of thousands of residents from Sderot. According to the United Nations, 40 percent of the city's residents left in the last two weeks of May. During the summer of 2007, 3,000 of the city's 22,000 residents (comprising mostly the city's key upper and middle class residents) left for other areas, out of rocket range.

During the 2008–2009 conflict, a large section of the residents of Ashkelon, a southern coastal city put in range of Grad-type rockets since the beginning of the conflict, fled the city for the relative safety of central and northern Israel. On January 10–11, according to Israeli media, 40 percent of the residents fled the city, despite calls by the Mayor to stay.

In February 2009, the BBC reported that 3,000 of Sderot's 24,000 residents had "upped and left."

Education

Kindergarten classroom in Beersheba struck by a Grad rocket

Israeli media reported on May 28, 2007 that only 800 out of a total of 3000 pupils in Sderot had turned up to schools.

During the 2008–2009 conflict, schools and universities in southern Israel closed due to rocket threats. Hamas rockets landed on Israeli educational facilities several times (such as empty schools in Beersheba) from 2008 to 2009, with no casualties as of January 15, except for cases of shock. Studies resumed starting January 11, with IDF Home Front Command representatives stationed at schools. Only schools with fortified classrooms and bomb shelters were allowed to bring in children. Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir said she hoped a return to school would provide a little structure and routine in a time of great stress and uncertainty for the children. However, students were reluctant to return, with students at Sapir College in Sderot reporting less than 25 percent attendance after student death in result of a rocket hit .

In March 2009, the Ashkelon urban parent committee decided to keep children out of schools following a surge in the number of rocket attacks on southern Israel and a qassam hit on an empty school in the city. As a result, only 40 percent of school students and 60 percent of kindergarten children attended, though the municipality had decided to keep schools open.

Psychological

An injured woman in Sderot consoles her daughter as she is led away by an emergency medical team

In 2008, Natal, the Israel Center for Victims of Terror and War, conducted a study on the city of Sderot based on representative sampling. The study found that between 75 percent and 94 percent of Sderot children aged 4–18 exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress. 28 percent of adults and 30 percent of children had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The co-director of the study emphasized the distinction between post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as problems sleeping and concentrating, and PTSD itself, which can interfere seriously with daily life.

An American Psychiatric Association study published in 2010, headed by Professor Yair Bar-Chaim of Tel Aviv University, found that incidence rate for post-traumatic symptoms among Israeli civilians was correlated with proximity to the Gaza Strip. Civilians who lived in areas where rockets frequently exploded, and where there was less warning time in advance of strikes, had a higher chance of developing post-traumatic symptoms than those living far enough from Gaza to have one minute or more in which to seek shelter after rockets were launched. The study also found that life under rocket fire sometimes led to cognitive disengagement from threat. Cognitive disengagement was positively correlated with the likelihood of developing pathologies such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

During the Gaza War, when rockets were falling on the city of Ashdod, the municipality opened a treatment centre for those with shell shock.

According to a 2009 Amnesty International report,

Scores [of rockets] have struck homes, businesses, schools, other public buildings and vehicles in and around towns and villages in southern Israel. It is purely by chance that in most cases such strikes have not caused death or injury, and the lethal potential of such projectiles should not be underestimated. Above all, the constant threat of impending rocket attacks has caused fear and disrupted the lives of the growing number of Israelis who live within range of such attacks, reaching up to a million.

Also in 2009, a spokeswoman for the Sderot Hosen Center, which provides psychological support and rehabilitation for the community, reported that attacks had taken a high toll on the mental health of children and adults in and around Sderot.

Children are afraid to sleep on their own, to be on their own, even to go to the toilet alone. They feel that their parents cannot protect them. Bed wetting is a common manifestation of their anxiety and insecurity. Their parents are similarly anxious and frustrated. It is even difficult to speak of PTSD, for as long as the rockets fall the trauma is renewed daily; we are not even in a post-trauma stage.

Political

On December 12, 2007, after more than 20 rockets landed in the Sderot area in a single day, including a direct hit to one of the main avenues, Sderot mayor Eli Moyal announced his resignation, citing the government's failure to halt the rocket attacks. Moyal was persuaded to retract his resignation.

On February 9, 2009, Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riad Malki accused Hamas of trying to influence the outcome of the 2009 Israeli general election by keeping up the rocket fire on southern Israel.

Motives

Rationales given by the Palestinian groups responsible for the attacks vary, but often include the argument that the rockets are a method of protest and of calling attention to perceived injustices. According to other explanations, the attacks constitute revenge for – or defense against – perceived Israeli aggression.

Hamas

Khaled Mashal, political leader of Hamas

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar has said that the goal of the attacks is to force mass migration in Israel and disrupt the daily life of its citizens. Explaining why his group had moved from suicide bombing to rocket attacks, he said:

Which do you think is more effective, martyrdom operations or rockets against Sderot? Rockets against Sderot will cause mass migration, greatly disrupt daily lives and government administration and can make a much huger impact on the government. We are using the methods that convince the Israelis that their occupation is costing them too much. We are succeeding with the rockets. We have no losses and the impact on the Israeli side is so much.

According to the BBC, Hamas views the attacks as legitimate because it regards the whole of historic Palestine (roughly coterminous with Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan) as Islamic land, and thus sees the state of Israel as an occupier.

[Hamas] regards the whole of historic Palestine as Islamic land and therefore views the state of Israel as an occupier, though it has offered a 10-year "truce" if Israel withdraws to the lines held before the war of 1967. It therefore generally justifies any actions against Israel, which has included suicide bombings and rocket attacks, as legitimate resistance. Specifically in Gaza, it argued that Israel's blockade justified a counter-attack by any means possible.

Hamas has given other explanations concerning various attacks. Salah Bardawil, a Palestinian legislator who serves as spokesman for the Hamas faction in parliament, has said "We know we can't achieve military equality, but when a person suffers huge pain he has to respond somehow. This is how we defend ourselves. This is how we tell the world we are here." Regarding specific strikes in 2007, Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal called the attacks self-defense and retaliation against Israeli killings of Hamas supporters. In January 2009 Mashaal called the rockets "our cry of protest to the world" An attack in November 2008 was said by Hamas officials said to be in revenge for the recent deaths of its militants and increased Israeli closing of Gaza crossings. A barrage in December 2008 was described by the group as retaliation for the deaths of three of its fighters in combat with Israeli troops.

PFLP

A spokesperson from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), on January 17, 2009, called the rockets a "representation of our resistance", stressing that as long as rockets were launched, "our cause is alive".

The rockets are both a practical and a symbolic representation of our resistance to the occupier [Israel]. They are a constant reminder that the occupier is in fact an occupier, and that no matter how they may engage in sieges, massacres, fence us in, deny us the basic human needs of life, we will continue to resist and we will continue to hold fast to our fundamental rights, and we will not allow them to be destroyed. So long as one rocket is launched at the occupier, our people, our resistance and our cause is alive.

This is why they targeted the rockets – the rockets do make the occupier insecure, because every one is a symbol and a physical act of our rejection to their occupation, to their massacres, to their crimes, and to their continuing assaults on our people. Each rocket says that we will not allow their so-called "solutions" [the Israeli-Palestinian peace process] that are based on the abrogation and denial of our rights.

The PFLP claimed responsibility for a April 3, 2010 mortar attack on Israel's Shaar Hanegev region, saying that it was carried out "in response to Zionist crimes". The group did not elaborate further.

Other groups

On January 19, 2009, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, published a statement listing its claimed attacks on Israel, including claimed rocket and mortar attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon. The group stated that the attacks were carried out "to defend our people in the Gaza Strip" and "to defend the Gaza Strip in the face of Zionist arrogance", but did not elaborate further.

The Popular Resistance Committees claimed that a January 7, 2010 mortar barrage was in "revenge" for an Israeli air strike several days earlier that killed two of the group's fighters.

Ansar al-Sunna, a small, al-Qaida-inspired Salafist militant group, claimed responsibility for an March 18, 2010 Qassam rocket attack on Netiv Haasara that killed 33-year-old Thai national Manee Singmueangphon, calling it a response to Israel's "Judaization" of Islamic holy places. The group did not clarify which acts or which Islamic holy places it was referring to. Further obscuring the motivation for the attack, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, independently claimed responsibility later.

Views

Palestinians

Prior to the 2008–2009 Gaza War, polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) showed consistently high levels of support for the rocket attacks among the Palestinian public.

• September 2004: 75% of Palestinians support "the firing of rockets from Beit Hanoun", though 59% of the residents of Beit Hanoun reject the practice.
• September 2006: 63% of Palestinians agree "that Palestinians should emulate Hizbullah’s methods by launching rockets at Israeli cities", and 35% disagree.
• March 2008: 64% of Palestinians support "launching rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli towns and cities such as Sderot and Ashkelon", and 33% oppose.

Conversely, polls conducted after the Gaza War indicated weaker support for the attacks and relatively broad support for attempts to prevent them.

• January 2010 Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) poll: 62.2% of Palestinians oppose "the re-firing of Al-Qassam rockets from Gaza at Israel" while 29.1% are in favor.
• July 2010 PCPSR poll: 57% of Palestinians support Hamas attempts to prevent rocket launching against Israeli towns and 38% oppose.
• July 2010 Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) poll: 68% of Palestinians do not want Hamas to resume its rocket attacks on Israel, while 25.5% believe the attacks should be resumed.
• October 2010 PCPO poll: 49.4% of Palestinians oppose "the re-firing of al-Qassam rockets from Gaza at Israel" while 46.2% are in favor.
• April 2011 Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre poll: 38.6% of Palestinians say that "the locally-made rockets fired from Gaza Strip towards Israeli regions" "harm... Palestinian goals" and 25.4% say that the rockets "help... Palestinian goals".
• May 2011 PCPO poll: 69.6% of Palestinians oppose the resumption "of launching Al-Qassam missiles from Gaza into Israel" and 29.8% support it.
• November 2011 JMCC poll: 40.8% of Palestinians say that the rockets harm Palestinian goals and 27% say that they help Palestinian goals.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of the Fatah party, has condemned the attacks despite Fatah's participation in them

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (of Fatah) has condemned the attacks several times, "regardless of who is responsible for them", on one occasion calling them "absurd", and on another saying that "they do not go in the direction of peace." On at least one occasion in 2009, Hamas itself criticized rocket attacks by an unknown group, apparently out of fears that new rocket fire could disrupt reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah which were then underway.

The firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel has been opposed by those living closest to the firing location due to Israeli military responses. On July 23, 2004 a family attempted to physically prevent the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades from setting up a rocket launcher outside their house. Members of the brigade shot and killed one boy wounded 5 others.

Israel

On December 27, 2008, upon the commencement of Operation Cast Lead, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an address to the nation: "for approximately seven years, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens in the south have been suffering from rockets being fired at them. Life in the south under rocket barrages had become unbearable. Israel did everything in its power to fulfill the conditions of the calm in the south and enable normal life for its citizens in the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip. The quiet that we offered was met with shelling."

Egypt

The August 2, 2010 Rocket attacks on Eilat and Aqaba sparked rage in Egypt at Hamas and Iran. The Egyptian press stated that the firing of the rockets from Egyptian territory by Hamas or by organizations cooperating with it constituted the crossing of a red line. The Egyptian position is that Iran is employing local proxies, such as Hamas, to escalate violence in the Middle East and to sabotage the Palestinian reconciliation efforts, as well as efforts to renew Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

Later that year, the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya slammed Hamas's firing of "primitive" rockets at Israel that, according to the writer, serve only to prompt a deadly response from Israel. He blamed Hamas for turning the Gaza Strip into a big prison isolated from the world, where the residents suffer poverty while the leaders live in luxury.

United Nations

On January 18, 2009, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said "for the sake of the people of Gaza, I urge in the strongest possible terms Hamas to stop firing rockets." On January 20, while visiting Sderot, the Secretary General called the rocket attacks "appalling and unacceptable". He added that the projectiles are indiscriminate weapons, and that Hamas attacks are violations of basic humanitarian law. Earlier, in November 2007, Ban had condemned a rocket attack launched from a UN-run Gaza school.

On February 17, 2008, John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said while visiting Sderot, "The people of Sderot and the surrounding area have had to live with these unacceptable and indiscriminate rocket attacks for seven years now. There is no doubt about the physical and psychological suffering these attacks are causing. I condemn them utterly and call on those responsible to stop them now without conditions".

Following a July 30, 2010, Palestinian Grad missile attack on the heart of Ashkelon, United Nations Middle East envoy Robert Serry said that indiscriminate rocket fire against civilians was completely unacceptable, and constituted a terrorist attack.

United States

In July 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing." On December 28, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement: "the United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel". On March 2, 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks.

European Union

On June 7, 2005, The European Union presidency, held by Luxembourg, condemned the firing of rockets by Palestinians at Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip and against Sderot. In January 2009, European Union Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said "Launching rockets at civilians is a terrorist action, which has to be strongly denounced."

Human rights groups

The attacks have been condemned as war crimes, both because they usually target civilians and because the weapons' inaccuracy would disproportionately endanger civilians even if military targets were chosen. Human Rights Watch has also condemned the attackers for firing from near residential structures, thus putting Gazan civilians at unnecessary risk. According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem,

Palestinian organizations that fire Qassam rockets openly declare that they intend to strike, among other targets, Israeli civilians. Attacks aimed at civilians are immoral and illegal, and the intentional killing of civilians is a grave breach under the Fourth Geneva Convention, a war crime, and cannot be justified, whatever the circumstances. Furthermore, Qassam rockets are themselves illegal, even when aimed at military objects, because the rockets are so imprecise and endanger civilians in the area from which the rockets are fired as well as where they land, thus violating two fundamental principles of the laws of war: distinction and proportionality.

Attacks from outside the Gaza Strip

West Bank

The West Bank abuts Jerusalem and lies within several kilometers of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and Ben Gurion International Airport.

There have been several attempts by Palestinian groups to fire rockets at Israel from the West Bank, though none of these have been successful. Such an attack could easily strike one of Israel's most densely populated areas.

In December 2005, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fired a Qassam rocket at Israel from the West Bank city of Jenin. The rocket landed within the West Bank, in proximity to the Israeli border village of Ram-On. The attack marked the first time a Qassam fired at Israel from the West Bank and came close to hitting a Jewish community.

In July 2006, a ranking member of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank said his group had the ability to produce rockets in the northern West Bank and that major Israeli cities as well as Ben Gurion International Airport would eventually become Palestinian rocket targets. "Every day our rockets in Gaza become more accurate and do more killing and this is exactly what will happen in the West Bank", he said.

In November 2006, A West Bank Fatah cell named Jondallah (God's soldiers) threatened to fire rockets at Israeli targets. At a news conference in Nablus, a group of 20 masked militants of the cell brandished four rockets. One of the projectiles, which was 1.5 metres (five feet) in length, was claimed by the group to have "a range of five kilometres (two miles) and a three kilogram payload". "We have a certain number of these rockets and we are going to use them when the time is right," said one of the armed militants.

In February 2010, Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank arrested a Hamas cell preparing to test-fire a Qassam rocket near Ramallah and handed the rocket over to Israel. Hamas later stated that "Having a Qassam rocket in the West Bank is a demand that must be achieved".

On June 20, 2010, senior Hamas official Mahmoud a-Zahar called on Palestinian residents of the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel.

On October 22, 2010, the Palestinian Authority seized a large cache of arms, including mortar shells, which it said were meant to be used by Hamas terrorists targeting Palestinian Authority officials or attempting to sabotage Palestinian Authority security enforcement in the West Bank. Hamas denied this, stating that any weapons would be used against "the occupation", apparently referring to Israel.

Egypt

Main article: Rocket attacks on Eilat and Aqaba

In 2010, Hamas carried out two rocket attacks on Israel from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. On April 22, three 122 mm Grad rockets were fired from the Sinai Peninsula at the Red Sea resort town of Eilat in the extreme south of Israel. The projectiles landed in the Red Sea and the neighboring town of Aqaba in Jordan, causing some property damage. Again on August 2, six or seven Iranian-made 122 mm Grad rockets were fired from the Sinai Peninsula at Eilat. The rockets fell in Eilat, Aqaba, Egypt and the Red Sea. A rocket that landed in Aqaba killed a Jordanian civilian and wounded several. The investigation into the attacks involved cooperation between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. The attacks severely damaged relations between Hamas and Egypt, which viewed them as a challenge to its sovereignty.

Lebanon

Main article: List of Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel

Palestinian militants in Lebanon have launched fatal rocket attacks on towns in northern Israel at least since the 1970s, but these incidents lie outside the scope of this article, as the topic of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel typically refers to attacks on southern Israel since 2001 and the Second Intifada. Rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory are discussed in the article List of Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel.

Other

Israeli blacksmith Yaron Bob, from the village of Yated, collects Palestinian rockets fired on his area and turns them into roses. These roses have been given by the Sderot Municipality to visiting dignitaries, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and United States Senator John Kerry. Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, "those rockets are in fact rockets that kill, and it's a nice idea to turn them into flowers."

See also

• List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel
• Israeli casualties of war
• Palestinian casualties of war
• Palestinian political violence

External links

Media

• Gaza's rocket threat to Israel, BBC, January 21, 2008
• Tony Karon, The Homemade Rocket That Could Change the Mideast, TIME, November 2, 2002
• Ulrike Putz, A Visit to a Gaza Rocket Factory, Der Spiegel, January 29, 2008

Science and security

• Rocket Threat from the Gaza Strip, 2000—2007, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, December 2007
• HAMAS Rockets, GlobalSecurity.org
• Katyusha & Qassam Rockets, aerospaceweb.org

Human rights groups

• Indiscriminate Fire, Human Rights Watch
• Qassam rocket fire into Israel, B'Tselem

Advocacy

• Sderot Media Center
• What are Qassam Rockets?, Jewish Policy Center