Arab terrorists attacked Sderot again on Shabbat morning, damaging two buildings and sending four people to the hospital for treatment of shock. The daily IDF retaliation targeted a terrorist leader while he was riding a motorcycle, but the government has not given the military orders to stop the the immense damage caused by the primitive rocket at all costs.
The Kassam rocket is "very simply made," according to Uzi Rubin, former national program manager of the Arrow anti-missile system. It is a thin steel tube with four metal fins and is propelled by a mix of sugar and fertilizer and carries a crudely-fashioned warhead.
"The sugar they buy from Israel. The fertilizer they buy from Israel. The metal pipe they buy from Israel. Ingenious. Very ingenious. I take my hat off to them for how to make simple things into deadly weapons," says Rubin.
It is a cheap weapon without any guidance system, but, in the words of Baltimore Sun reporter John Murphy, it has succeeded in "throwing the Israeli government off balance and leaving the modern, high-tech Israeli military helpless to stop them."
The main target has been Sderot, a Negev working-class development town located about one mile east of rocket-launching territory in northern Gaza.
The city has been under siege for six years since the first mortar shell was launched from Gaza. The latest escalation in attacks has left three people dead since a “ceasefire” declared November 26, 2006 and has half-fulfilled Hamas' vow to turn the city into a ghost town. Almost half of the residents have fled.
The Kassam has become a symbol of victory for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and more than half of the Arab population supports rocket attacks on Israel, according to a recent poll by the Am-Najah University in Shechem, located in Samaria.
The Israeli government promised two years ago that the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza in 2005, following the destruction of almost two dozen Jewish communities, would bring an end to terrorist attacks. One of the principal arguments in favor of Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan was that the withdrawal would leave Israel in a totally justifiable position to stop terrorism "if even one rocket is fired."
However, once the IDF was ordered to withdraw from the Philadelphi smuggling route, it gave terrorists a free ticket to smuggle ammunition and advanced weapons into Gaza. Intelligence officials have told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that terrorists have amassed more than 20,000 guns, about 1,000 anti-tank rockets and launchers, about 100 tons of explosives and several longer-range Katyusha rockets and anti-aircraft missiles since the Disengagement.
Thousands of rockets later, the government has found itself stymied by American pressure to negotiate with the PA and also by its delayed decision to develop an anti-rocket system. In late 2006, the Defense Ministry ended months of deliberations and decided to progress with an anti-Kassam system that will not be operational until 2009, at the earliest.
"There is no military solution," said Israeli military analyst and Tel Aviv University lecturer Reuven Pedatzur. "For the last several years, the army tried several options. All of them did not succeed, not from the air and not from the ground."
In the past, the IDF has staged ground assaults and used heavy artillery fire, but international pressure for a diplomatic solution halted all of the tactics.
But, Shlomo Brom, a military analyst and former general at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, recently stated that a large-scale invasion into Gaza is the only way to stop Hamas. He also warned, "It is not clear what advantage Israel enjoys if dragged back into Gaza."
"Israel is trapped from all sides. Any move will end with a barrage of rockets on this town [Sderot]," according to Alon Ben-David, military commentator for Israel TV's Channel 10.
The number of rocket attacks has dwindled sharply in the past few days, but similar lulls in the past always have been temporary. Terrorists may be holding fire in order to give Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas leverage when he meets with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this Thursday.
"The firing of rockets is part of the strategy of resistance, and whatever we did has achieved many goals," Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum explained on Saturday. "We have achieved a balance of fear."
We have achieved a balance of fear.
Sderot residents expect the attacks to resume. "This is a ritual that's been repeating itself for seven years now," Sderot security director Eli Ben Maman said. "It takes them some time to get organized, but they fire the Kassams when they can. If we're not hit today, we'll be hit tomorrow morning."
The Kassam rocket is "very simply made," according to Uzi Rubin, former national program manager of the Arrow anti-missile system. It is a thin steel tube with four metal fins and is propelled by a mix of sugar and fertilizer and carries a crudely-fashioned warhead.
"The sugar they buy from Israel. The fertilizer they buy from Israel. The metal pipe they buy from Israel. Ingenious. Very ingenious. I take my hat off to them for how to make simple things into deadly weapons," says Rubin.
It is a cheap weapon without any guidance system, but, in the words of Baltimore Sun reporter John Murphy, it has succeeded in "throwing the Israeli government off balance and leaving the modern, high-tech Israeli military helpless to stop them."
The main target has been Sderot, a Negev working-class development town located about one mile east of rocket-launching territory in northern Gaza.
The city has been under siege for six years since the first mortar shell was launched from Gaza. The latest escalation in attacks has left three people dead since a “ceasefire” declared November 26, 2006 and has half-fulfilled Hamas' vow to turn the city into a ghost town. Almost half of the residents have fled.
The Kassam has become a symbol of victory for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and more than half of the Arab population supports rocket attacks on Israel, according to a recent poll by the Am-Najah University in Shechem, located in Samaria.
The Israeli government promised two years ago that the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza in 2005, following the destruction of almost two dozen Jewish communities, would bring an end to terrorist attacks. One of the principal arguments in favor of Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan was that the withdrawal would leave Israel in a totally justifiable position to stop terrorism "if even one rocket is fired."
However, once the IDF was ordered to withdraw from the Philadelphi smuggling route, it gave terrorists a free ticket to smuggle ammunition and advanced weapons into Gaza. Intelligence officials have told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that terrorists have amassed more than 20,000 guns, about 1,000 anti-tank rockets and launchers, about 100 tons of explosives and several longer-range Katyusha rockets and anti-aircraft missiles since the Disengagement.
Thousands of rockets later, the government has found itself stymied by American pressure to negotiate with the PA and also by its delayed decision to develop an anti-rocket system. In late 2006, the Defense Ministry ended months of deliberations and decided to progress with an anti-Kassam system that will not be operational until 2009, at the earliest.
"There is no military solution," said Israeli military analyst and Tel Aviv University lecturer Reuven Pedatzur. "For the last several years, the army tried several options. All of them did not succeed, not from the air and not from the ground."
In the past, the IDF has staged ground assaults and used heavy artillery fire, but international pressure for a diplomatic solution halted all of the tactics.
But, Shlomo Brom, a military analyst and former general at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, recently stated that a large-scale invasion into Gaza is the only way to stop Hamas. He also warned, "It is not clear what advantage Israel enjoys if dragged back into Gaza."
"Israel is trapped from all sides. Any move will end with a barrage of rockets on this town [Sderot]," according to Alon Ben-David, military commentator for Israel TV's Channel 10.
The number of rocket attacks has dwindled sharply in the past few days, but similar lulls in the past always have been temporary. Terrorists may be holding fire in order to give Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas leverage when he meets with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this Thursday.
"The firing of rockets is part of the strategy of resistance, and whatever we did has achieved many goals," Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum explained on Saturday. "We have achieved a balance of fear."
We have achieved a balance of fear.
Sderot residents expect the attacks to resume. "This is a ritual that's been repeating itself for seven years now," Sderot security director Eli Ben Maman said. "It takes them some time to get organized, but they fire the Kassams when they can. If we're not hit today, we'll be hit tomorrow morning."