Hamas and other militant groups fire rockets into Israel every day

As Israel wages a war in Gaza aimed at dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities, the armed group and its allies have continued to fire rockets into Israel almost every day, targeting deep within the country’s borders and hitting some of the country’s largest cities. country affected.

Since Hamas led a terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7, Hamas and other armed groups have fired approximately 12,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel, a quarter of which on October 7, the Israeli government has said. said.

Most of the rockets fired from Gaza were shot down by Israeli air defenses before they could make an impact. But the continued volleys, while less frequent than at the start of the war, are indicative of the size of Hamas’s arsenal and its continued ability to threaten cities far from Gaza.

According to Israel’s emergency services, 15 people have been killed in strikes and about 700 others have been injured in nearly three months of war in Israel.

In the south of Israel, along the border with Gaza, rocket attacks have long been a fact. But since the war began, Israelis across the country have become accustomed to the screams of air raid sirens.

In recent weeks, sirens have sounded in central Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv. Jerusalem residents were sent running to safe rooms and shelters in December for the first time in more than a month.

“It’s really sad to see mothers with babies running to the shelters,” said Hannah Reback, 24, who was in Tel Aviv last week when the sirens were activated.

The death toll from the rockets in Israel is far smaller than the toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 20,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. But Israeli officials have said the rocket attacks show that Hamas and its allies in Gaza continue to terrorize Israeli civilians.

“If we do not reduce Hamas’s rocket capabilities, Hamas will continue to fire rockets at Israelis,” the Israeli army’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Wednesday.

Many of the approximately 3,000 rockets that Hamas fired during the first few hours of the October 7 attacks were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, but they nevertheless sent Israelis at a music festival into roadside bunkers, where militants slaughtered them. They were among about 1,200 people killed in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks.

The Israeli military has focused much of the war in Gaza on Hamas’s offensive capabilities. Many rocket launches early in the war took place from northern Gaza, where the Israelis say they now have operational control. According to Zohar Palti, a defense expert and former intelligence director of the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, the frequency of the barrage from Gaza has decreased in recent weeks.

The army recently published video that says it shows rockets and launch infrastructure that soldiers in Gaza found near a mosque, on an area used for youth activities, in playgrounds and near children’s swimming pools. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilian centers such as hospitals and busy neighborhoods as cover for their military operations.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Zaher Jabareen, a member of Hamas’s political leadership, dismissed as “lies and slander” accusations that Hamas fighters use civilian areas to hide and fire rockets. by Israel.

Israel began using its Iron Dome defense system in 2011 to intercept short-range missiles. The system has significantly reduced fatalities from missile attacks, but shrapnel from interceptions can be fatal, and the system does not intercept all missiles.

Hamas’s arsenal consists largely of locally made short-range rockets, which are smaller and less accurate than the rockets and large bombs used by the Israeli army and other militaries.

Between 10 and 20 percent of Hamas’s rockets fail and fall in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said in a recent report, citing Israeli military data. Sometimes those failures invade Gaza, killing Palestinians.

In Ashkelon, one of the most affected parts of Israel, the Barzilai hospital has been hit twice by rocket fire since October 7. The child development institute and gynecology department were damaged, along with a bridge connecting separate hospital wings, officials said. . The facilities were largely evacuated when the war started and no one was injured.

“Over the last 20 years, we’ve had one round of war after another,” said Dr. Ron Lobel, director of emergency and disaster medicine at the hospital, adding, “This round was something quite extraordinary.”

Ben Hubbard contributed reporting from Istanbul, Johnatan Reiss from Tel Aviv and Myra Noveck from Jerusalem.