Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip as part of the continuing Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The attacks, widely condemned for targeting civilians, have been described as terrorism by the United Nations, the European Union, and Israeli officials, and are defined as war crimes by human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets to be illegal under international law. Palestinian militants say rocket attacks are a response to Israel's blockade of Gaza, but the Palestinian Authority has condemned them and says rocket attacks undermine peace.
From 2004 to 2014, these attacks have killed 27 Israeli civilians, 5 foreign nationals, 5 IDF soldiers, and at least 11 Palestinians and injured more than 1,900 people.evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza Retrieved 7 November 2023 Medical studies in Sderot, the Israeli city closest to the Gaza Strip, have documented a post-traumatic stress disorder incidence among young children of almost 50%, as well as high rates of depression and miscarriage.Report: Missiles on Sderot increase miscarriages , Jerusalem Post 24 February 2013Study: Half of Sderot's toddlers suffering from PTSD , Ynet News 30 June 2009Israeli survey: Almost half of Sderot preteens show symptoms of PTSD , Haaretz 20 November 2012 A public opinion poll conducted in March 2013 found that a majority of Palestinians do not support firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, with only 38% favoring their use. Another poll conducted in September 2014 found that 80% of Palestinians support firing rockets against Israel, if it does not allow unfettered access to Gaza.80% of Palestinians Support Resumption of Rocket Fire Against Israel: New Poll , Algemeiner Journal 30 September 2014 The rocket attacks have caused flight cancellations at Ben Gurion Airport.
The weapons, often generically referred to as Qassams, were initially crude and short-range, mainly affecting Sderot and other communities bordering the Gaza Strip. 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. In 2012, Jerusalem and Israel's commercial center Tel Aviv were targeted with locally made "M-75" and Iranian Fajr-5 rockets, respectively,Two rockets land outside J'lem; two fired at TA , Jerusalem Post 16 November 2012 and in July 2014, the northern city of Haifa was targeted for the first time. Several projectiles have contained white phosphorus. According to a Hamas militant, these shells are recycled from unexploded munitions used by Israel in bombing Gaza.Ilana Curiel Phosphorus mortar shell detected in Negev Ynet 14 January 2009Yanir Yagna, Eli Ashkenazi, Anshel Pfeffer Hamas Launches First Phosphorus Rocket at Negev; No Injuries Reported Haaretz 15 January 2009:'Palestinian militants fired a phosphorus rocket at Israel for the first time yesterday, one of 17 fired into Israel as fighting entered its 19th day. The phosphorus rocket exploded in an open field in the western Negev. No injuries or damage were reported.Ali Waked 'We used phosphorus fired in Gaza war' Ynet 16 September 2010:' A member of one of the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza admitted to Ynet on Thursday that the phosphorus used in the rockets fired on Israel Wednesday contained material gathered from shells Israel itself fired on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Still, the source said the groups' use of phosphorus shells was "an experiment" and that there are no plans to put it to mass use. "We don't have the kind of phosphorus the Israelis are talking about."White phosphorus found in mortar shells fired from Gaza". Ynet 1 January 2012.Eshkol Council Head Files UN Complaint over Mortar Fire Jerusalem Post 16 September 2010.
Attacks have been carried out by all Palestinian armed groups, and, prior to the 2008–2009 Gaza War, were consistently supported by most Palestinians,Palestinian – Israeli Joint Press Release , PSR – Survey Research Unit 24 March 2008 although the stated goals have been mixed.
Israeli 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.Iron Dome successfully intercepts Gaza rocket for first time , Haaretz 7 April 2011
In the cycle of violence, rocket attacks alternate with Israeli military actions. From the outbreak of the Second Intifada (30 September 2000) through March 2013, 8,749 rockets and 5,047 mortar shells were fired on Israel, while Israel has conducted several military operations in the Gaza Strip, among them Operation Rainbow (2004), Operation Days of Penitence (2004), Operation Summer Rains (2006), Operation Autumn Clouds (2006), Operation Hot Winter (2008), Operation Cast Lead (2009), Operation Pillar of Defense (2012), Operation Protective Edge (2014), Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021) and Operation Swords of Iron (2023).
Overview
Attacks began in 2001. Since then (August 2014 data), almost 20,000 rockets have hit southern Israel, all but a few thousand of them since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Hamas justified these as counter-attacks to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The rockets have killed 28 people and injured hundreds more. The range of the rockets has increased over time. The original Qassam rocket has a range of about but more advanced rockets, including versions of the old Soviet Grad or Katyusha have hit Israeli targets from Gaza.Q&A: Gaza conflict, BBC News 18 January 2009
Some analysts see the attacks as a shift away from reliance on suicide bombing, which was previously Hamas's main method of attacking Israel, as an adoption of the rocket tactics used by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.Hamas Adopting Rocket Tactics Used by Hezbollah, FOX News 31 December 2008
Participating groups
All the Palestinian armed groups carry out rocket and mortar attacks, with varying frequency. The main groups are Hamas, Islamic Jihad,Rockets fired from Gaza as fragile cease-fire ends , CNN 19 December 2008 the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,Shane Bauer, Palestinian factions united by war , Al Jazeera English 20 January 2009 the Popular Resistance Committees,Tim McGirk, Gaza Rocket Rocks Bush's Israel Trip , TIME 14 May 2008 Fatah,JPost staff, Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade takes responsibility for Gaza rocket fire, Jerusalem Post 1 February 2009 and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In June 2007, Hamas took over from Fatah as 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.Ali Waked, Gaza summer camps teach kids to fire rockets , YNet 31 July 2008 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."
A 2007 report by Human Rights Watch found "little evidence that Palestinian security forces were making efforts to prevent rocket attacks or to hold responsible the militants who launch them." In some cases, "Palestinian security officials themselves acknowledged they were not acting to stop the attacks."
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
1975 On 3 May 1975 at 4:15 am, two 107mm rockets struck Jerusalem's central area, not far from the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens.
2001–06
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 28 March 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.Yaakov Katz, , Jerusalem Post 28 March 2009Katyusha rocket 'fired from Gaza', BBC News 28 March 2006 Several months later, On 5 July 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",Greg Myre and Steven Erlanger, A Gazan Rocket Reaches 6 Miles Into Israel , New York Times 5 July 2006Israel tanks enter northern Gaza, BBC News 6 July 2006 but the event was quickly overshadowed by the 2006 Lebanon War.
On 25 May 2006 the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group that published in 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 weapons and threaten with chemical warfare. later that month report of use of chemical weapons by that group had been published in the media.
On 8 June, an event occurred that formed part of a 'chronology of crisis' leading to the most intense barrage of rocket attacks during 2006.Artillery Shelling Retrieved 7 November 2023 Although Israel acknowledged that Hamas was largely sticking to the February 2005 cease-fire (in Fatah-controlled Gaza), it recommenced assassinations of Hamas leaders with the killing of Jamal Abu Samhadana. The Israeli military said Samhadana and the other targeted militants were planning an attack on Israel. The next day, in response to the assassination and calls for revenge, Islamic Jihad fired rockets at Israel, and a few hours later the IDF retaliated in turn with a bombardment of launch sites on a Gaza beach near Beit Lahia. During the time span of the IDF bombardment, a civilian Gaza family, the Ghalias, was all but wiped out in an explosion. In response to the assassination of its Ministry official and the civilian 'beach' deaths, Hamas announced that it was going to recommence rocket attacks. This was followed by a series of mutual attacks and reprisals between the IDF and Gaza factions, culminating in the abduction of two suspected Hamas members, and, on the following day, of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit. The latter event gave rise to Operation Summer Rains,Summer Rains Retrieved 7 November 2023 as a result of which Gaza's electricity network was damaged, and 402 Palestinians and 7 Israelis were killed.
2007