The Gaza Strip has seen a dangerous escalation in violence in recent weeks. Scores of Palestinians, including numerous unarmed civilians, have been killed or wounded by Israeli artillery shells and extrajudicial assassination raids. The Israeli pretext for the latest attacks has been the growing threat to the Jewish state's strategic facilities by homemade Qassam rockets. These rockets are launched on an almost daily basis from the Strip, targeting southern Israeli towns in retaliation for Israeli assaults.
Many in the Palestinian public have questioned the efficacy of such attacks against Israel, and whether or not they ultimately harm Palestinian interests. Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been demanding that gunners in the Gaza Strip stop the rocket attacks, saying that they were "useless".
"I condemn this rocket fire," he was quoted as saying by Al Arabiya TV earlier this month. "I called these rockets useless in the past and I want to reiterate this—these rockets are useless."
"The rockets sometimes kill Palestinians. In some cases they explode in the hands of those who fire them and at times they land in the desert. At one point, a rocket hit a settlement (inside Israel) and killed an Arab there," the Palestinian leader was quoted as saying.
"Each time a rocket is launched, we get in return thousands of rockets from (Israeli) tanks and warplanes….Can't those who launch the rockets see what the repercussion of their actions are….?"
Generally speaking, residents in the Gaza Strip view such rocket attacks with ambivalence. Palestinian activists, mainly from the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committee, have considered these rockets an effective weapon against Israel. Both because Israel has so far failed to stop such attacks, and since the range of the rockets now includes important Israeli facilities such as the port city of Ashkelon.
Some Gaza Strip residents, however, claim that activists who launch such attacks are motivated by their own "narrow interests," rather than by the interests of the Palestinian public or Palestinian national interests.
While supporting the cause of resistance, many Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip argue that rocket attacks carry far too high a price. Merciless Israeli military raids that ensue, especially in the northern part of the Strip from which rockets are usually launched, have disrupted the lives of residents there and resulted in extensive damage to houses and infrastructure.
Additionally, the rockets are relatively unsophisticated and lack guidance systems, oftentimes missing their targets. For instance, on the afternoon of 8 February 2006, an armed Palestinian group launched a locally made rocket from the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip at an Israeli target across the border.
The rocket went astray, hitting a house belonging to Saber Mohammed Abdul Dayem, nearly 300 meters from the launching site. The rocket hit the southern part of 3-storey house, where 10 people live, said the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR.). Fire broke out, terrifying the family-members. The rocket exploded in the family's living room and destroyed all their furniture. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
This incident was not the first of its kind. On 2 August 2005, Palestinian armed groups launched three locally made rockets at Israeli targets. One of them went astray and hit a house belonging to the family of Al Ashqar east of the town of Beit Hanoun, also in the northern Strip. Fifty-year old Al Ashqar and his 6-year old son, Yasser, were killed. Nine other civilians, including five children, were also wounded in the attack.
In the past, local residents have protested the continuation of such rocket fire, according to press reports. However, these protests ceased immediately, apparently in fear of the reaction of "rocket squads". In addition, these residents were afraid that their objection to the use of rockets would incorrectly be interpreted within Palestinian society as opposition to attacks against Israel.
The rise to power in the Palestinian Authority of Hamas has put the Islamic Movement in a Catch 22 situation. On one hand, as the leading political power in the Palestinian lands the Hamas-led cabinet can not ignore the woes of Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, one cannot ignore the fact that Hamas military engineers were those who developed the rockets against Israel from Gaza Strip.
It is clear that Hamas leaders recognize that at this stage, the continuation of rocket attacks takes heavy tolls on some Gaza Strip citizens. This understanding was demonstrated publicly in September 2005, when Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Zahar, now the Palestinian foreign minister, vowed to halt all attacks from Gaza Strip, including the firing of rockets.
"The movement (Hamas) announces that it has stopped its operations from the Gaza Strip against the Zionist occupation," Al Zahar said.
"Hamas is committed to protecting the Palestinian people from the Zionist entity. ... The movement is concerned with Palestinian national interests," he stressed.
Following Al Zahar's announcement, all Hamas gunners ceased their rocket fire. However, it seems that for political reasons, Hamas has so far refrained from ordering other groups to follow suit. Considering the deteriorating security and economic situation in the Strip, pressure by local residents on Hamas can be expected to mount in an attempt to stop further rocket fire.
