Qassam Rocket: Development and Impact

By Michael Jacobson

The Washington Institute published a piece today on how Qassam rockets -- frequently and increasingly the weapon of choice for Hamas -- have altered strategic balance between Israel and the Palestinians.

Here is an excerpt:

Qassam rockets -- unsophisticated weapons manufactured in garages and backroom laboratories -- have transformed the strategic equation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These crude rockets give Palestinian terrorist organizations the capability to strike deep into Israeli territory, throwing the security assumptions behind future peace negotiations into doubt.
Background

Qassam rockets -- named after Izz al-Din al-Qassam, the militant Syrian preacher and Muslim Brotherhood member killed in 1935 while fighting British and Zionist forces in Palestine -- are the most recent innovation in attacks on Israeli civilians. Hamas first introduced them in Gaza in September 2001, about a year after the start of the second intifada. Although Hamas has the most advanced rocket manufacturing and launching capabilities, other groups have made similar weapons a staple of their arsenals, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Quds rockets), the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (al-Aqsa rockets), and the Popular Resistance Committees (Nasser rockets).

These radical groups have used rockets with greater frequency in recent years to overcome the obstacle posed by Israel's Gaza security fence, which has proven to be extremely effective in preventing Palestinian infiltration from that territory since its completion in 2001. Ironically, these groups have exploited the Qassam's notorious inaccuracy, highlighting the random violence that it causes on its targets. For example, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar explained to London's Sunday Telegraph in August 2007 that Hamas prefers rocket attacks to suicide bombings because rockets "cause mass migration, greatly disrupt daily lives and government administration, and make a much [larger] impact....We have no losses, and the impact on the Israeli side is so much."

To read the entire piece, click here

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