As of October 7, 2010 there have been 165 rockets fired at Israel this year, including a Qassam rocket which was fired October 6th and a mortar launched on Friday (October 1st) from Gaza which landed in the Eshkol Regional Council. The monthly breakdown for 2010 is as follows:
2010 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May |
Qassam | 16 | 6 | 24 | 5 | 11 |
Mortars | 11 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
Grads | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 27 | 6 | 29 | 12 | 14 |
Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Total | |
Qassam | 15 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 106 |
Mortars | 1 | 1 | 7 | 15 | 50 |
Grads | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
Total | 16 | 16 | 13 | 30 | 163 |
Today, there are over 950,000 Israelis living within range of rocket, mortar and grad attacks, with the highest population in Be’er Sheva, where approximately 531,000 civilians have 60 seconds to find shelter in case of an attack.
The map below indicates how much time people have to take cover given the distance the rocket travels. Those living in the 10 kilometer range have 15 seconds to find safety once the alarm sounds, those in the 20 km range have 30 seconds, 30 km – 45 seconds, and 40 km a minute. Operation Cast Lead was initiated to reduce the number of rocket attacks against the inhabitants of southern Israel and was highly successful in its goal.
Population Figures (numbers from 2007):
- Ashkelon – 108,900
- Ashdod – 207,000
- Yavne – 32,200
- Gadera – 17,700
- Kiryat Malachi – 19,600
- Kiryat Gat – 7,800
- Sderot – 19,300
- Be’er Sheva – 531, 000
- Ofakim – 24,700
- Netivot – 25,600
Each Projectile, whether a Qassam, a mortar or a Grad can reach a wide range of distances. The map below marks the ranges of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The grey area refers to mortar shells, the yellow to kassam rockets, the orange improvised kassam rockets and Grad missiles, the red area refers to the range of upgraded Grad missiles.
Since Hamas’ takeover in the Gaza Strip, rocket fire at Israel had risen exponentially, peaking in the period right before Operation Cast Lead with 3,278 rockets fired at Israel in 2008, and steeply decreasing since the end of the Operation in 2009:
2009 | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun |
Qassams | 271 | 43 | 54 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
Mortars | 132 | 41 | 22 | 3 | 15 | 0 |
Grads | 120 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 523 | 88 | 76 | 8 | 18 | 3 |
Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
1 | 1 | 14 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 421 |
2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 229 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 124 |
3 | 7 | 17 | 9 | 13 | 9 | 774 |
At the current rate of rocket-fire at Israel, 2010 is set to be the year with the least rocket attacks since 2002. As the chart below details, the year with the least rocket-fire was 2005 when 479 projectiles were fired at the state while only 163 projectiles have been fired at Israel this year (as of 6/10/2010):
2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
Qassams | 44 | 168 | 315 | 197 | 1071 |
Mortars | 617 | 679 | 1213 | 281 | 57 |
Grads | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 661 | 847 | 1528 | 479 | 1130 |
2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | ||
Qassam | 1071 | 1553 | 421 | 106 | |
Mortars | 1357 | 1685 | 229 | 50 | |
Grads | 5 | 40 | 124 | 7 | |
Total | 2433 | 3278 | 774 | 163 |