Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. Psalm 17 v8
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Sderot
War in all but name - (until December 2008)
Sderot, and the surrounding area of the Negev, is the only place in the western world in which rockets are regularly targeted on civilian communities but the world’s media regards it a a minor event. Sderot is the place where every children's playgrounds has to have a concrete bomb shelter, even if it is painted in rainbow colours.
When Hitler’s forces targeted London with VI and V2 rockets it was called World War 2.
How can a proper context be established?
What can be done about the situation?
What is a Qassam Rocket?
What justification can the Palestinians produce?
Sderot and Qassam Rockets in context
Qassam rockets are generally referred to as "homemade", "primitive" and “inaccurate”, but this is neither accurate nor helpful.
- Manufacture requires both expertise and an engineering workshop.
- The lack of a guidance system does not negate the terror value of the Qasaam as the sheer number launched ensures some hits and each launch renews the stress of the people of Sderot.
- The use of unguided rockets in war is common. (See Kutyusha Rocket at the foot of this page)
Reporting tends to suggest the rockets are puny and do little damage. But that is also misleading.
- A Qassam 3 carries 10Kg of explosives mixed with steel fragments, so the risk is not primarily of being blown up by a direct hit, but of being ripped to bits by steel fragments flying at bullet speed.
- Reports of minor building damage occurring in a hit and a couple of people being treated for shock completely misses the point that many of the children in Sderot are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from living under threat every day and having to run to the shelters several times in a day. ( Over 4, 000 Sderot residents are suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic-stress disorder while one third of Sderot children, ages 13 to 18, have trauma-related learning disorders.)
- The terror is accentuated by the fact that residents receive a TZEVA ADOM (COLOUR RED) warning for every detected Qassam launch and know that they only have ten to fifteen seconds to run to safety.
- Over seven thousand Qassams have been launched at Sderot and the Negev, and Hamas are known to have stockpiled another ten thousand.
- Media coverage tends to be driven by death statistics, and only(!) around fifteen people have been killed by Qassam rockets, the death toll is not high (from the media’s detached viewpoint). The paradox of the situation is that God’s protecting hand can be discerned in the stories of miraculous escapes that come out from Sderot, but since this lowers the body count, sympathy for Israelis id diminished.
- Media / Public sympathy tends to be negated when Israel attempts to do something to protect its civilians, and Palestinians are killed. The phrase, “proportionate response” is used to criticize Israel. The Palestinian casualty toll is as high as it is because,
a) the Qassams are fired from civilian areas so that, when launch sites are attacked, there is a high risk of collateral damage
(b) Palestinian terrorists have a habit of surrounding themselves with crowds of children
(c) Qassam rocket production facilities are sited in civilian areas.
War Crimes
The Palestinian use of Qassam rockets, subjecting a civilian population to rocket bombardment is a WAR CRIME under the Geneva Convention.
Using Human Shields is also a War Crime.
(Supporters of the Palestinians keep (spuriously) accusing Israel of war crimes)
Proportionate Response
Whenever Israel attempts to protect its citizens from Qassam attack there is a chorus of condemnation about not making a "proportionate response."
A proportionate Response would be to supply the residents of Sderot with ten thousand rockets with 10Kg warheads to be fired at Gaza’s population centres until the population were so worn down that they kicked out the Hamas government that they voted into power! Israel does not appear to be about to do this; imagine the world reaction.
What can be done ?
Media and public awareness
Noam Badein has set up the Sderot Media Centre to make the facts and the context available to the world. Visit Sderot Media Centre and understand the reality of life for the citizens of Sderot. See their videos on You Tube, along with other videos by Honest Reporting and others. Search on fifteen seconds and Sderot.
You and I should take every opportunity to put a truthful picture to the media and to our everyday acquaintances
Defensive strategy
- Sderot residents have to live in a permanent state of siege, knowing that at any time (mostly at the most inconvenient times, like the going to school/work time) they will hear the COLOUR RED alarm and have to run for shelter within ten to fifteen seconds.
- Where do they find shelter? In stairwells or other rooms without windows if they are not in the open.
- Where do they find shelter in the open? Today it is possible to find concrete shelters at bus stops and in children’s playgrounds. But we are now several years in to the suffering of Sderot’s citizens; these shelters are mostly quite recent. Where else in the world do civilians have to live like this when they are not at war?
- These shelters were provided by Operation Lifeshield, by charitable donations; your donations would be gratefully received. Operation Lifeshield has shamed the government into starting a programme of providing shelters.
- The COLOUR RED alarms are provided by the IDF by means of observation facilities in tethered airships. But it could be argued that the alarms contribute as much to the terror and consequent PTSD experienced by the citizens as do the rockets themselves.
- Taking out the terrorists and their facilities is the most obvious form of protection but this is much more difficult and, as noted above, costly in Public Relations because of the collateral damage. See below for technical details of the use of Qassam rockets to appreciate how difficult it is to hit the operators.
What is a Qassam rocket?
The Qassam rocket (or Kassam rocket ) is a simple steel rocket filled with explosives, produced by Hamas. Three models have been used. They are all free-flying artillery rockets lacking any guidance system, fuelled by mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate ( a widely available fertilizer) with a warhead filled with TNT and urea nitrate (another fertilizer).
The Qassam 3 is 2.2 metres long and 17cm in diameter and weighs 90Kg. It has a payload of 10Kg of explosives and a range of 10Km.
The rocket is propelled by a square section propellant slug made of a 60/40 mix of potassium nitrate and sugar, that is slid into the steel pipe. The end of the rocket is a base plate having seven steel nozzles that is screwed into the casing before being tack welded into place. The propellant burns for around 1 second, powering the rocket upwards, at an angle, so that after the burn ceases the rocket follows a parabolic path under the influence of gravity, to hit the ground a predictable distance from its launch point. ( assuming a roughly standard energy input from the propellant slug and a repeatable launch angle)
If you want to experiment with parabolic trajectories, try varying the water pressure and the angle of a garden hose.
The rockets are launched from a simple steel frame, that is quickly deployed and can be easily taken away, or left behind if a swift evacuation is judged wise. By pointing the launcher in the direction of the desired target by eye, and by adjusting the launch angle to vary the range, using information gleaned from media reports of earlier hits, the terrorists can improve their accuracy.
The warhead contains a combination of urea nitrate and smuggled TNT; plus added shrapnel.
Detonation is by a simple device based on an empty small arms cartridge filled with an explosive booster material operating against a spring-loaded nail.
As for being “home made” a little thought will show that at least a small engineering works will be needed.
The body of the rocket is steel tube (agricultural irrigation pipe that Israel is compelled to supply to the Palestinians), but manufacturing a threaded endplate with seven steel nozzles is hardly kitchen table technology, and neither is the production of a nose cone
The propellant could, conceivably, be produced in the kitchen, if one has internalised the martyr culture. Sugar is melted, the fertilizer is mixed in and the mixture is poured into a mould to solidify into a correctly sized propellant slug. Sugar contains a large amount of energy but will only release it slowly when burnt. The fertilizer acts as an oxidizing agent (supply of oxygen) to allow the energy to be released much quicker. The correct proportion will cause it to burn fast enough to propel a rocket but not so fast as to explode. The sugar and fertilizer are also obtained via Israel as legitimate humanitarian necessities. The same is true of the urea nitrate fertilizer that is mixed with the TNT to make the explosive warhead.
While artillery rockets are not the only weapons used by the Terror organizations, from their point of view, they do have some advantages when compared with other weapons. They are simpler to operate than mortars, have the long reach that mines, by definition, do not have and after firing, their simple launchers can in fact be abandoned. Furthermore, they do not require suicidal volunteers and no amount of security guards will stop them.
The Hamas terrorists in Gaza are now also using mortars; a more advanced military technology.
brainstuff.howstuffworks.com has a good explanation of Qassam rockets and they found this You Tube video. You may find this Hamas video glorifying Qassam brigades very distasteful, but it is informative about the thinking of Hamas and the population of Gaza as well as showing manufacture and firing of rockets.
Much of what is said about Hamas and their Qassams also applies to HizbAllah in the North, except that their Katyushka and Grad rockets are supplied ready made via Iran and Syria.
Katyusha multiple rocket launchers are a type of rocket artillery originally built and fielded by the Soviet Union in the WWII. Compared to other types of artillery, such multiple rocket launchers are able to deliver a devastating amount of explosives to an area target more quickly but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload.
Hezbollah's rocket force |
||||
Rocket (Hezbollah designation) |
Diameter (mm) [citation needed] |
Range (km) |
Warhead (kg) |
|
122 |
20 |
21 |
||
220 |
40 |
100 |
||
230 |
45 |
45 |
||
333 |
13 |
190 |
||
333 |
29 |
190 |
||
333 |
75 |
90 |
||
170 |
200+ |
500 |
||
122 |
20 |
18 |
||
230 |
45 |
70 |
||
610 |
100-400 |
600 |
||
The main arsenal of Hezbollah's rocket force are the some 13,000 Katyusha rockets, including the 122mm BM-21 rockets which have a range of 25km
At least some of the rockets appear to have been modified to improve their effectiveness ; Human Rights Wanderers reported that the rocket that killed eight people at Haifa's main railway depot on , 2006 had been packed with metal ball bearings which acted as lethal shrapnel. Another rocket, filled with ball bearings, killed 12 Israeli .
Technical Specifications for Grad Rockets
Weight – 62-66 kg (136.4-145.2 lbs)
Length – 280 cm (9.2′)
Caliber – 122mm
Maximum Range – 20.4 km (12.67 miles) 3
Weight of War Head – 18 kg
Those desiring more technical information will find plenty on Wikipedia and other sources by Googling on the desired keyword.
Update January 2009
Hamas discontinued the "sort of" ceasefire and resumed their barrages against Southern Israel. Israel finally took action to stop the offensive from Hamas. The Israel haters took to the streets around the world to condemn Israel and disregard the truth.
The Gaza war now includes an area that includes Beer-Sheva (check it on the map) because Hamas are not using just "homemade rockets" but bought in rockets with greater range and explosive payload.
The God of Israel continues to be merciful to his people, as reported in the Maoz Israel prayerletter. "For example the new mayor of Beersheva decided to cancel all schools today. And then one classroom in a certain school took a direct hit, with the rocket exploding inside the classroom. All sources said that if the forty 10th graders had been in their class, no one would have survived."
This, of course, counts against Israel when body counts are compared - But Israel and his God delight in life not death!
Created 30/11/08 - Updated 03/01/09
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