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

Sderot

A playground in Sderot -between rocket attacks

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 for lobbing rockets at civilian communities?

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 the speed of a bullet.
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 is 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

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 world media speaks of Kassam rockets almost as they are homemade fireworks. What are that really?

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.

Rockets and Missiles - an overview

This section has been given its own page - Rockets

Update May 2011

With Fatah and Hamas making peace (?) with a view to convincing the world to grant Palestinian statehood without any peace with Israel, what is the missile situation for wider Israel?

A new illustrated map presented by the pro-Israel Americans for a Safe Israel (ASFI) shows that a Hamas-Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority state, with or without all the borders the PA demands, would leave all of what would remain of Israel within Katyusha missile range.

The map was created by Mark Langfan, a New York attorney and expert on military and strategic issues who has frequently appeared at Congressional committees on Capitol Hill.

A Hamas-Fatah PA state would allow the Hamas terrorist organization, whose stated aim is the destruction of Israel, to deploy Iranian and Syrian-supplied Katyusha missiles near all Israel urban centres.

Seventy percent of the population of Israel, and 80 percent of the country’s industrial base is located in the coastal region that includes Netanya and metropolitan Tel Aviv, AFSI pointed out. One large PA city is Tulkarm, located only a few miles east of Netanya and overlooking the high-speed north-south Highway 6 (Kvish 6).

Jerusalem would be within easy range of Jericho, where the PA army is trained on a United States-funded base by American military officers. [!]

Be'er Sheva already has been attacked by Grad Katyusha missiles from Gaza, as have Haifa and the Galilee from Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon.

The God of Israel continues to be merciful to his people, as reported in the Maoz Israel prayer-letter. "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!

Footnote August 2019

Youngsters who have grown up in the area around Sderot are now coming to the age of IDF service, but they have been found to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and some are so severly affected that they are unable to serve in combat units.

Updated 16/08/19

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