By Ryan Jones
Sep 05, 2005
Hamas terrorists based in the Gza Strip have managed to increase the range of their locally-produced Kassam rockets to 16.5 kilometers, or roughly 10 miles.
The improvement will allow Hamas, which will soon operate within Gaza without IDF interference, to target a major power station in Ashkelon and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s Sycamore Ranch, in addition to 46 other Negev communities.
Ynet reported the new Kassams are not yet operational, but Israeli officials expect it is only a matter of months before they are deployed if development continues unimpeded.
With the final stages of Israel?s withdrawal from Gaza just around the corner, and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas still refusing to disarm Hamas, the group?s ability to complete the rocket is not in question.
Israeli officials also expressed concern shipments of advanced explosives, allowing Hamas to increase the deadliness of the new Kassams, will start arriving in Gaza the moment the IDF is gone.
?It's already waiting in a warehouse somewhere,? one security expert told Ynet. ?If under improvised conditions they were able to produce such a quantity of rockets, we can expect very 'hot' days after the pullout.?
On Monday evening, SMS Israel reported a Kassam launched from Gaza landed near the western Negev town of Nahal Oz. There were no injuries in the attack.
Over the past several years, the Israeli residents of the western Negev have suffered thousands of ?Palestinian? rocket and mortar attacks. Many analysists and officials believe that situation will only worsen after the ?disengagement.?
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed repeatedly to unleash an unprecedented military response the moment Gaza-based ?Palestinians? started firing rockets from Gaza following the withdrawal.