Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel

[12] Medical studies in Sderot, the Israeli city closest to the Gaza Strip, have documented a post-traumatic stress disorder incidence among young children of almost 50%, as well as high rates of depression and miscarriage.

Israeli defenses constructed specifically to deal with the weapons include fortifications for schools and bus stops as well as an alarm system named Red Color.

Iron Dome, a system to intercept short-range rockets, was developed by Israel and first deployed in the spring of 2011 to protect Beersheba and Ashkelon, but officials and experts warned that it would not be completely effective.

"[45] A 2007 report by Human Rights Watch found "little evidence that Palestinian security forces were making efforts to prevent rocket attacks or to hold responsible the militants who launch them."

Due to this, and despite the imperfect aim of these homemade projectiles, they have caused deaths and injuries, as well as significant damage to homes and property, psychological distress and emigration from the city.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the attack, which was claimed by Hamas, an "escalation of unprecedented gravity",[53][54] but the event was quickly overshadowed by the 2006 Lebanon War.

[64] The next day, in response to the assassination and calls for revenge, Islamic Jihad fired rockets at Israel, and a few hours later the IDF retaliated in turn with a bombardment of launch sites on a Gaza beach near Beit Lahia.

On 20 October, an accidental explosion occurred at a Hamas Qassam rocket training site in the densely crowded Tel As-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

[108] On 21 March, during US President Barack Obama's official visit to Israel, Palestinians in Beit Hanoun fired four rockets at the Israeli city of Sderot, triggering alarms in local communities and forcing residents on their way to work or school to run to bomb shelters.

[117] The United Nations special envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry condemned the "indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian areas" and also called on Israel to exercise restraint.

After the attacks, the IDF announced that it had struck over 100 targets in the Gaza Strip including a weapons factory, munitions warehouse and Hamas' Public Security offices.

According to Yedioth Aharonoth journalist Elior Levy, "Gaza terror cells choose to fire from urban areas knowing that the Israel Defense Forces refrain from intercepting them for fear of hurting civilians.

As of February 2009, approximately 5,000 residents of southern Israel, mostly elderly immigrants from the former Soviet Union, lacked proper reinforced rooms or reasonable access to public shelters.

[162] In March 2008 the Israeli Government placed 120 fortified bus stops in Sderot, following a Defense Ministry assessment that most Qassam-related injuries and fatalities were caused by shrapnel wounds in victims on the street.

[168] As of 18 February 2010 all public safe places (Merkah mugan/bomb shelter) must be built with gas and liquid filtering systems (can defend from a chemical and biological missile attack for several hours),[169] And as of 18 May 2010 any new household without that will not be approved with form No.

4 (the ability to connect a house to electricity and water)[170][171] The Israeli government has installed an alarm system called "Red Color" (צבע אדום) to warn citizens of impending rocket attacks, although its effectiveness has been questioned.

A two-tone electronic audio alert (with a pattern of high, 2 second pause, high-low) is broadcast twice, followed by a recorded female voice[172] intoning the Hebrew words for Red Color ("Tzeva Adom").

[214] Hamas rockets landed on Israeli educational facilities several times (such as empty schools in Beersheba[215][216]) from 2008 to 2009, with no casualties as of 15 January, except for cases of shock.

[149][228] An American Psychiatric Association study published in 2010, headed by Professor Yair Bar-Haim of Tel Aviv University, found that incidence rate for post-traumatic symptoms among Israeli civilians was correlated with proximity to the Gaza Strip.

[28] Also in 2009, a spokeswoman for the Sderot Hosen Center, which provides psychological support and rehabilitation for the community, reported that attacks had taken a high toll on the mental health of children and adults in and around Sderot.Children are afraid to sleep on their own, to be on their own, even to go to the toilet alone.

On 9 February 2009, Palestinian Authority foreign minister Riad Malki accused Hamas of trying to influence the outcome of the 2009 Israeli general election by keeping up the rocket fire on southern Israel.

Salah Bardawil, a Palestinian legislator who serves as spokesman for the Hamas faction in parliament, has said "We know we can't achieve military equality, but when a person suffers huge pain he has to respond somehow.

[235] In January 2009 Mashal called the rockets "our cry of protest to the world"[236] An attack in November 2008 was said by Hamas officials to be in revenge for the recent deaths of its militants and increased Israeli closing of Gaza crossings.

[28][242] The Popular Resistance Committees claimed that a 7 January 2010 mortar barrage was in "revenge" for an Israeli air strike several days earlier that killed two of the group's fighters.

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (of Fatah) has condemned the attacks several times, "regardless of who is responsible for them",[258] on one occasion calling them "absurd",[10] and on another saying that "they do not go in the direction of peace".

[265] Former Brigadier General Gal Hirsch argued that Israel's control over the West Bank prevents the development of rocket threats in that area, in contrast to what happened after Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza and southern Lebanon.

[266] Two Israelis, Aaron Friedman and Yehonatan Tsirolnik, have created an online clock timer, that automatically resets when Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel occur.

[268] On 18 January 2009, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "for the sake of the people of Gaza, I urge in the strongest possible terms Hamas to stop firing rockets.

[273] In July 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.

[281] In December 2005, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fired a Qassam rocket at Israel from the West Bank city of Jenin.