# What is a Palestinian rocket?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 31, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381 "2008-12-31T19:08:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381/1 "2008-12-31T19:08:31Z")

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After seeing a photo of one being launched the other day, I started to wonder. It looked pretty sizable.

Are these homemade things, or are they commercially available?

Can they be aimed? Why do they seem so ineffective?

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**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381/2 "2008-12-31T19:22:04Z")

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They are sort of home-made, but they are still quite sophisticated. As can be seen in this Wiki article :-  
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam\_rocket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket).

I also recall reading somewhere that Iran have also been supplying them with commercially made rockets and mortars.

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**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381/3 "2008-12-31T19:28:10Z")

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for the past year or so, most rockets have been the locally made Kassam. Over the past week , the terrorists have started using the heavier Grad rocket.

[from the Israeli government:](http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/Israel+in+Maps/Kassam+and+Katyusha+Threat.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> Most of the Kassam rockets are locally manufactured and have an approximate maximum range of 9 kilometers (6 miles), although some have a range of 12.5 kilometers (7 ¾ miles). In addition, a number of standard 122 mm rockets with a range of 20.4 kilometers (12 2/3 miles) have also been launched.
> 
> over 1,079 rockets and over 1,215 mortar bombs fired from the Gaza Strip struck southern Israel from January-July 2008

> [@](#):
>
> In the past 24 hours, over 15 heavy rockets were fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza against Israel’s southern port city of Ashkelon. The 122 mm GRAD rockets (also known as Katyushas), are a type of standard military artillery weapon produced in the former Soviet bloc … It is manufactured to military standards, by a conventional arms industry, and is equipped with a weapons-grade high explosive fragmentation warhead.
> 
> The range of the rockets fired against Ashkelon is over 20 km, an upgraded capability which places about a quarter of a million Israeli civilians in constant danger of Hamas attack.

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**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-palestinian-rocket/479381/4 "2008-12-31T23:59:11Z")

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Most of them are made in local workshops. I’ve read that many of the larger rockets are of Chinese origin, supplied to Hamas by Iran.

They aren’t precision or guided weapons. They are area effect weapons. Used in large numbers, they have similar effects to a massive artillery barrage. For a conventional army, they are a cheap and quick way of augmenting traditional artillery forces. They were widely used in World War II.

Fired one at a time, they have little military value, other than to harass an enemy.