Word: qassam
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When Gaza is aflame, Sderot is typically the first Israeli town to feel the heat. The small town of about 23,00 people perched on a pleasant bit of countryside near the Gaza Strip is within easy range of the homemade, unguided, Qassam rockets fired by Palestinian militants across the fence. And with Gaza spiraling into a chaotic Palestinian civil war, at least 70 rockets have been fired into Israel over the past two days, several of them landing in Sderot. One even hit a building near the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, a Sderot native...
...chaos in Gaza is a disaster for a Palestinian population suffering the stress of more than a year of sanctions, but it also bodes badly for Israel. Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel have become an almost daily routine since March, when Hamas ended its unilateral cease-fire. If the Palestinian government collapses, Israel may soon resume strikes against militant leaders and rocket cells, which in turn will likely escalate the attacks. Israeli security officials have admitted there is no military solution to the rockets, but they may be drawn further into the conflict if Gaza militants begin using...
...unlikely because Haniyeh may be losing his grip on the militant fighters of his own organization. Izzeddine al-Qassam Brigades, a hard-line group within Hamas, is furious with Haniyeh for striking a power-sharing deal with Abbas, who is commited to U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel. As one Palestinian official mused in Gaza, "Breaking the cease-fire has more to do with Palestinians versus Palestinians than fighting the Israelis...
...wealth for the public good. During the Lebanon War, when the government was slow to shelter hundreds of thousands of Israelis who fled the Katyusha fire in the north, Gaydamak erected a tent city that housed thousands of families. Last fall, when the town Sderot was facing regular Qassam rocket fire from Gaza, Gaydamak paid to bus thousands of residents down south to stay in high-end hotels...
...against each other, so no single one could ever become too powerful. The result: several organizations, no clear hierarchy, a lot of guns and a lot of people with interests they want to protect. Hamas has its own forces, too, including its powerful Executive Force and the Izzadine al Qassam Brigades. Then there are other insurgent groups and numerous clans, gangs, and families with their own militias and interests, ranging from offering protection to taking revenge, from committing crimes to firing rockets at Israel. (Much of the recent violence in Gaza was clan-related.) Whatever their motives, says Nicholas Pelham...