August 14, 2022 | Haaretz
Why Palestinian Islamic Jihad Rockets Kill So Many Palestinians
Roughly 200 Gaza rockets misfired in the recent conflict, killing at least 15 civilians. So why are Islamic Jihad’s projectiles so fatally unreliable? And what are Iran’s plans for its proxy?
August 14, 2022 | Haaretz
Why Palestinian Islamic Jihad Rockets Kill So Many Palestinians
Roughly 200 Gaza rockets misfired in the recent conflict, killing at least 15 civilians. So why are Islamic Jihad’s projectiles so fatally unreliable? And what are Iran’s plans for its proxy?
As a pioneer of suicide bombings, Palestinian Islamic Jihad has long made clear its willingness to kill Palestinians in order to kill Israelis. The latest surge of fighting across the Gaza Strip border took the group’s tactical nihilism up a notch: Its rockets caused Palestinian casualties that exceeded the collateral damage from Israel’s military strikes.
According to estimates from the Israel Defense Forces, of the approximately 51 dead in Gaza, at least 15 were killed by Palestinian rockets that unintentionally landed in the coastal strip. Haaretz’s latest report indicates 16 killed by rockets and 49 Palestinians in total. By contrast, Israel killed 11 Palestinians as collateral damage. The remainder of the deaths involved Palestinian terrorists killed by Israeli forces.
These same estimates indicate that of the approximately 1,100 projectiles launched by the terrorist group, roughly 200 rockets – or 18 percent of all strikes – malfunctioned or otherwise fell short of their target. Thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system, no Israelis perished from Palestinian rockets.
Two of the Islamic Jihad misfires that killed Palestinians took place in the final hours of the conflict, as the group stepped up its salvos in the hope of entering the cease-fire with dead Israelis as a trophy. No doubt the gunners’ zest to beat the deadline, while avoiding exposure to lethal Israeli counterstrikes, had further deleterious effects on the accuracy of these rockets.