Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

PA warned: Use of Kassam-2 will bring heavy retribution
Ha'aretz ^ | 1/26/01 | By Amos Harel

Posted on 01/26/2002 7:51:13 PM PST by truthandlife

Palestinians are likely to try to fire the new Kassam-2 rocket at towns in central Israel in the near future, senior Israel Defense Forces officers predicted last week.

Israel has warned the Palestinian Authority, via several different channels, that any attempt to fire the rockets at an Israeli town would cross all red lines and provoke an extremely harsh Israeli response, which could include the reconquest of the cities from which the rockets were fired.

Information obtained by the defense establishment indicates that several Kassam-2 rocket launchers have already been stationed in Palestinian towns near the Green Line from which the rockets could hit targets in central Israel. The rockets, developed by Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip, have a range of about eight kilometers, and can carry a warhead of three to five kilograms. Currently, however, they are very inaccurate.

Over the last few months, Hamas has been smuggling the technology for making the rockets from Gaza to the West Bank, and a few weeks ago, Hamas conducted a successful test launch of the rocket in the Nablus area. According to current IDF assessments, there are relatively few rocket launchers in the West Bank, but neither the rockets nor the launchers are very difficult to manufacture, so their numbers can be expected to swell in the coming months.

So far, however, the Palestinians have used only the less powerful Kassam-1 rocket, which also has a shorter range.

On Friday, three of these rockets were fired at the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, but no one was injured.

A senior officer on the General Staff told Ha'aretz that the PA has done nothing to interfere with the Kassam-2's development.

"If rockets are fired from the West Bank into Israel, our response will be of a different order of magnitude entirely," he said. "We have warned the PA on this matter, through every possible channel of communication."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 01/26/2002 7:51:14 PM PST by truthandlife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: truthandlife
... which could include the reconquest of the cities from which the rockets were fired.

I'm glad to hear they are thinking of this. That was my suggestion on another thread--although I suggested it as an announced warning/policy for further attacks on civilians by any means.

2 posted on 01/26/2002 7:58:44 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: truthandlife;Pearls Before Swine;MatchettPI;OldGlory;B Ireland;Luke FReeman;Seeking the truth;DJ88
Write the names on your walls, people! Write the names of the proponents of evil on the walls in front of you!

Write the name of the lawyer who is mounting the defence of 'Johnny-Jihad-Walker' right in front of you!

Use a magic-marker, and write down their names! They are trying to destroy our glorious country, so WRITE DOWN THEIR NAMES, DAMMIT!!

Sometimes I wonder, how many times do the Dassholes and Grabhards have to see the WTC buildings crashing-down in bloody-flames, before they become Americans? The World Trade Center Buildings were destroyed!

"They're not listening now, perhaps they never will"!

3 posted on 01/26/2002 10:31:26 PM PST by gonzo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: truthandlife
The arabs use Kassam-1's and nothing happens except a promise of a spanking if they use Kassam-2's? Why does this remind me of those bratty kids in super markets playing with the toys while their mom's say over and over "stop that johnny or I will have to spank you". SO SPANK ALLREADY!

To borrow another Freepers comments "empty buildings quake in fear..."

4 posted on 01/26/2002 10:49:38 PM PST by American in Israel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Squantos,harpseal,poohbah
How big do you think the body of an 8 kilometer range 5 kilo HE rocket is? What do you guess the propellant is?

Is this something that fits in a car trunk, or a garage?

5 posted on 01/27/2002 12:02:24 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
How big do you think the body of an 8 kilometer range 5 kilo HE rocket is? What do you guess the propellant is?

When I was in high school, we built a rocket which lifted a nearly 2 kg payload about a mile high. That would have been about 4 kilometers range. It was fueld with zinc and sulfur and was 5 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. There are far more powerful fuels than we used, and a rocket the size of ours, or shorter and thicker would easily have the desired range and payload with easily obtainable fuel.

6 posted on 01/27/2002 12:29:40 AM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Thanks. I wonder what they are using for precurser chemicals, and what the accuracy potential is at 7K. Probably no better than .5K for a 1K circle, due to erratic quality control in the propellant.
7 posted on 01/27/2002 12:33:50 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Our rocket had no real guidance system, only stabilizer fins. This thing sounds like a nuisance weapon, nothing like the Iraqi scuds, which were much larger than what they are talking about here, or the German V-2's. In other words, they would be for terror only, and have no strategic value at all, like most Palestinian tactics. If they keep going on as they have been, the Palestinians may yet convince the Israelis that Meir Kahane and the Kach movement had the right idea.
8 posted on 01/27/2002 12:39:54 AM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Lucius Cornelius Sulla
I agree with both of your points.
9 posted on 01/27/2002 12:45:17 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Whatever it is, I expect that it's crunchy and compressible if you drive an M-60 tank over it.
10 posted on 01/27/2002 12:53:00 AM PST by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: lentulusgracchus
Then back up and repeat as often as required.
11 posted on 01/27/2002 12:55:11 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: truthandlife
It seems that the strategy of the Palestinians is now to be as murderous as possible in the hope of provoking such dismay among voters of the western world as to push their leaders into an international intervention. Then the Palestinians could continue the campaign of terror behind the protection of international "peacekeepers."

Once again, locked in their own mental world, they are miscalculating. After 9/11, citizens of the western world (not necessarily the media elites) see Palestinian terrorism as part of the threat to themselves. Accordingly, there is indifference to the steps taken by Israel to defend itself, and intifada type tactics have lost their effectiveness.

12 posted on 01/27/2002 7:46:54 AM PST by thucydides
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
How big do you think the body of an 8 kilometer range 5 kilo HE rocket is? What do you guess the propellant is?

Depends on the fuel used. The shuttle's boosters have a specific impulse of 300 (one pound of fuel generates 300 pounds of thrust). That fuel is, IIRC, powdered aluminum and ammonium perchlorate. You can get up to about 450 or so with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, but that isn't practical for a weapon. Black powder will get you about 100-110, and the "smokeless powder" (actually a plastic compound) used in the WW2 bazooka will give you somewhere around 200 or so.

Now, you have to do a whole boatload of math to calculate how much fuel you need, because in addition to lifting the warhead, you have to lift the fuel you haven't used yet and the rocket carcass as well.

My vote on the fuel is some variant of smokeless powder.

13 posted on 01/28/2002 4:11:11 AM PST by Poohbah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Poohbah
Lots of math aside, are we talking about rockets that fit in a car trunk to move around, or fit in a garage and need to be fired close to where they are built?
14 posted on 01/28/2002 6:25:21 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Travis, I'm not kidding about the math component. That will tell you how much fuel you need, and fuel is the bulkiest component. If it's not much fuel, then it's small. If it's a bigger thing, then you're going to need a bigger vehicle.

My personal gut feel is that one rocket would fit in a trunk, but five kilos of warhead is just asking to get a few hundred kilos in return for minimal gain. Better to have a delivery truck rigged to barrage the boogers--you could store them in the firing position, open a hole in the roof, set a timer, run like hell.

15 posted on 01/28/2002 7:36:05 AM PST by Poohbah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Poohbah
Yeah, an IRA style homemade Katyusha launcher in the back of a truck or van, to saturate an area.
16 posted on 01/28/2002 10:15:11 AM PST by Travis McGee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: gonzo
***Write the name of the lawyer who is mounting the defence of 'Johnny-Jihad-Walker' right in front of you!

Use a magic-marker, and write down their names! They are trying to destroy our glorious country***

I started to call you the other night with this very idea... those defending this traitor are doing their part to tear down America... and there are far too many of them.

Sometimes I think I see what UBL saw... we might not win this thing.

17 posted on 02/07/2002 8:40:32 AM PST by B Ireland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: B Ireland
We'll win, Bob, but the bloodletting isn't over yet......FRegards
18 posted on 02/07/2002 2:02:33 PM PST by gonzo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: matamoros
In my High School, physics, Latin, and Romance Languages were all elective courses.

My Jr. High had a rifle team.

School sure ain't what it used to be.

L

20 posted on 02/07/2002 2:20:02 PM PST by Lurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson