Qassam rocket fire into Israel

Data

Based on B'Tselem’s research, from June 2004 to the end of 2007, eleven Israelis, four of them minors, were killed by Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians. Another Israeli civilian and one foreign national were killed by Qassam rockets that struck settlements in the Gaza Strip. Qassam rocket fire also killed five Palestinians, two of them minors.

According to UN figures, in 2005, 1,194 Qassam rockets were fired at Israel (about 100 a month), in 2006 the rocket fire increased to 1,786 (an average of 149 a month), and in 2007, 1,331 (an average of 111 a month).

An Israeli police officer extinguishes a burning car after a Qassam rocket attack in Sderot. Photo: Amir Cohen, Reuters, 19 May 2007.

Rocket fire as a war crime

Palestinian organizations that fire Qassam rockets openly declare that they intend to strike, among other targets, Israeli civilians. Attacks aimed at civilians are immoral and illegal, and the intentional killing of civilians is a grave breach under the Fourth Geneva Convention, a war crime, and cannot be justified, whatever the circumstances. Furthermore, Qassam rockets are themselves illegal, even when aimed at military objects, because the rockets are so imprecise and endanger civilians in the area from which the rockets are fired as well as where they land, thus violating two fundamental principles of the laws of war: distinction and proportionality.

Many of the rockets are fired from areas in which civilians live. International humanitarian law (IHL) prohibits attacks from inside or near the homes of civilians, and using civilians as human shields. Palestinian organizations that carry out the attacks against communities in Israel from within or near a populated area breach this rule, and in doing so, demonstrate not only their intention to strike Israeli civilians, but their indifference to the loss of Palestinian lives.

The Palestinian government must do everything it can to cease the Qassam rocket fire, and the Palestinian organizations must cease attacks aimed at civilians, in particular when they are carried out from populated Palestinian areas. By failing to take sufficient action to stop the rocket fire from areas close to residential dwellings, and even worse, taking part in these attacks, the Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip severely breaches international law and commits war crimes.

Persons involved in the commission of war crimes bear personal criminal responsibility for their acts. Because of the gravity of these attacks, and given that they constitute an international crime, every state is empowered to prosecute the persons responsible. As long as Palestinians in Gaza fire rockets at communities in Israel are not prosecuted under proper legal standards, other states have the duty to prosecute them.