About the past rocket Attacks

Category: Israel

Since the Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in mid-June 2007, 428 missiles and 590 mortar bombs were fired at Sderot and the western Negev, slamming into the ground in and around Sderot and Kibbutz Niram. From Israel's disengagement from the Strip in mid-August 2005 until the Hamas takeover of Gaza 1,826 missiles were fired into Israeli territory from Gaza. (Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Some of the rockets are 122mm are Russian-made Grad missiles, smuggled into Gaza via tunnels from Egypt. Others, like the infamous Kassam-2 rockets are home-made from dug up water pipes.

Ironically these water were given to them by the state of Israel to help improve the now seriously flawed sewage system in Gaza. For Hamas this seems like a good deal. With very limited means they terrify enough Israeli civilians to bring Sderot and other parts of the western Negev on the verge of mass evacuation.

"Rockets against Sderot will cause mass migration, greatly disrupt daily lives and government administration and can make a much huger impact on the government"
Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud A-Zahar, 21 Aug 2007

But what the brilliant thinkers of Hamas actually do is to create a whole lot of other immediate problems on their own home turf: Sewage floods. In March 2007, just after a big wave of Kassams hit the western Negev, one of Gaza's many sewage reservoirs collapsed. The wave of waste water killed 5 people immediately and forced thousands of Gazans to flee their homes. It seems now that the price tag for the Kassam terror is much higher than expected. Scrap availability of water and sewage service, which has devastating effects in a densely populated area like Gaza. I wonder when they'll do the math.

The snippet on the left is from Yedioth Aharonot, after a exceptionally bad month in 2007 with more than 200 attacks on Sderot and Kibbutz Niram. But no, it's not yet a real forecast but from their humour page.