The Use of Rockets by Terrorists

The use of rockets by terrorists is not new. Largely it remains local and exclusive to the struggle between the state of Israel and the terrorist groups that are opposed to it. Starting in the 1970's, thousands of rockets have been shot into and across Israel. The peak of the attacks occurred during the last war between Israel and Lebanon in July 2006, when 4,500 rockets, including some of Hezbollah's long range rockets, were shot into Israel from Lebanon and caused significant damage. These attacks reinforced the huge impact that the rocket threat had reached. Because the most decisive terror activities, use of rockets and suicide bombers, have been executed by the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist groups, this paper concentrates mainly on those groups.