Qassam rocket

Qassam
Eight Qassam launchers, seven equipped with operating systems and one armed and ready to launch, uncovered during an IDF operation in northern Gaza.
Service history
Used by	Palestinian militants
Wars	Gaza–Israel conflict
Production history
Designer	Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Designed	2001
Manufacturer	Palestinian militants
Produced	2001-current
Specifications
Weight	Qassam 1: 15kg; Qassam 2: 40kg; Qassam 3: 100kg
Length	Qassam 1: 79cm; Qassam 2: 180cm; Qassam 3: 220cm
Diameter	Qassam 1: 6cm; Qassam 2: 15cm; Qassam 3: 20cm
Warhead weight	Qassam 1: 5kg; Qassam 2: 10kg; Qassam 3: 20kg
Propellant	Solid fuel (sugar and potassium nitrate mix)
Operational range	Qassam 1: 5km; Qassam 2: 12km; Qassam 3: 20km

The Qassam rocket (Arabic: صاروخ القسام‎ Ṣārūkh al-Qassām; also Kassam) is a simple steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2011.

More generally, all types of Palestinian rockets fired into southern Israel, for example the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Al Quds rockets, are called Qassams by the Israeli media, and often by foreign media.^[1]

The Qassam gained notoriety as the best-known type of rocket deployed by Palestinian militants mainly against Israeli civilian, but also some military targets during the Second Intifada of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[2][3] Since 2000, Palestinian rockets, which include the Qassam, alongside others such as the Grad rocket, have claimed the lives of 22 Israelis and one Thai national.^[4][5]

History of the Qassam

Origin

Qassam rockets are named after the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas, itself named for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a militant Syrian preacher whose death during a guerrilla raid against British Mandatory authorities in 1935 was one of the catalysts for the 1936 Arab Revolt.^[6][7]

Rocket launches

The production of Qassams began in September 2001 following the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The first Qassam to be launched was the Qassam-1, fired on October 2001, with a maximum range of 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) to 4.5 kilometers (2.8 mi).^[6] February 10, 2002 was the first time Palestinians launched rockets into Israel, rather than at Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. One of the rockets landed in Kibbutz Saad.^[8] A Qassam first hit an Israeli city on March 5, 2002 when two rockets struck the southern city of Sderot. Some rockets have hit as far as the edge of Ashkelon. By the end of December 2008, a total of 15 people had been killed by Palestinian rockets since attacks began in 2001.^[9]

Rocket design and cost

Rockets being exhibited

The aim of the Qassam rocket design appears to be ease and speed of manufacture, using common tools and components. To this end, the rockets are propelled by a solid mixture of sugar and potassium nitrate, a widely available fertilizer. The warhead is filled with smuggled or scavenged TNT and urea nitrate, another common fertilizer.^[10]

The rocket consists of a steel cylinder, containing a rectangular block of the propellant. A steel plate which forms and supports the nozzles is spot-welded to the base of the cylinder. The warhead consists of a simple metal shell surrounding the explosives, and is triggered by a fuze constructed using a simple firearm cartridge, a spring and a nail.^[10]

While early designs used a single nozzle which screwed into the base, recent rockets use a seven-nozzle design, with the nozzles drilled directly into the rocket baseplate. This change both increases the tolerance of the rocket to small nozzle design defects, and eases manufacture by allowing the use of a drill rather than a lathe during manufacture due to the smaller nozzle size. Unlike many other rockets, the nozzles are not canted, which means the rocket does not spin about its longitudinal axis during flight. While this results in a significant decrease in accuracy, it greatly simplifies rocket manufacture and the launch systems required.^[10]The propellant of Palestinian rockets is generally made from fertilizer, and the TNT warhead is smuggled through the Rafah border tunnels into the Gaza Strip.

Cost

The cost of the materials used for manufacturing each Qassam is up to $800 or €500 (in 2008-9) per rocket.^[11][12]

Reaction

Israeli reaction

A Qassam rocket is displayed in Sderot town hall against a background of pictures of residents killed in rocket attacks

The introduction of the Qassam rocket took Israeli politicians and military experts by surprise,^[13] and reactions have been mixed.^[14] In 2006, the Israeli Ministry of Defense viewed the Qassams as "more a psychological than physical threat."^[15] The Israel Defence Force has reacted to the deployment of the Qassam rockets by deploying the Red Color early warning system in Sderot, Ashkelon and other at-risk targets. The system consists of an advanced radar that detects rockets as they are being launched, and loudspeakers warn civilians to take cover between 15 and 45 seconds before impact^[16] in an attempt to minimize the threat posed by the rockets. A system called Iron Dome, designed to intercept the rockets before they can hit their targets, is in use since March 2011.

Palestinian reaction

The firing of Qassam rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel has been opposed by those living closest to the firing location due to Israeli military responses. On July 23, 2004 a family attempted to physically prevent the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades from setting up a Qassam rocket launcher outside their house. Members of the brigade shot one member of the family, an Arab boy, and wounded 5 others.^{[17][18][19][20]} In October 2010 five children and three women were injured after a Qassam rocket training site exploded near a crowded residential area of Tel As-Sultan in Rafah. Palestinian Center for Human Rights has condemned Hamas for storing explosive material near civilians. In August a similar explosion wounded 58 and destroyed seven houses.

Similar Palestinian rockets

Other Palestinian militant groups have also developed home-made rockets. The media generally refer to all Palestinian high-trajectory rockets as "Qassam rockets" or "Qassam missiles", while they call most rockets fired from Lebanon "Katyushas", as a Katyusha is not a specific model but rather a generic class of rocket.

• Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Al Quds 101 & 2
• Popular Resistance Committees – al Nasser-3
• Tanzim – Saria-2
• Fatah – Kafah

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center estimated that in 2007^[21] the proportions of rockets fired were:

34% – Palestinian Islamic Jihad

22% – Hamas

 8% – Fatah

 6% – Popular Resistance Committees

30% – unknown

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reports that the number of Palestinian rockets fired per year^[21] were:

2001:   4

2002:  35

2003: 155

2004: 281

2005: 179

2006: 946

2007: 896

2008: 2,048^[22]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Qassam rocket

• Humanitarian aid organization in Sderot
• About the Qassam-sderotmedia
• GlobalSecurity.org – Qassam Rocket
• The Homemade Rocket That Could Change The Mideast – By Tony Karon, TIME Online Edition (10 February 2002)
• Qassam-2 missile a wild card in Mideast conflict – CNN (March 5, 2002)
• Gaza rockets kill two in Israel, BBC article (June 28, 2004)
• Palestinian Weapons Production and Smuggling : Missiles & Rockets
• A Visit to a Gaza Rocket Factory, by Ulrike Putz, der Spiegel international (January 29, 2008, in English)
• Rocketboom visits Sderot
• Katyusha & Qassam Rockets on www.aerospaceweb.org
• Updates about rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel on twitter.com
• Photos: Qassam rockets in Sderot