An Israeli boy stands near the scene of a rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of
How likely is it that a rocket will fall out of the sky and score a direct hit on you? Probably not very likely.
But what the above picture shows is that every Kassam rocket has ball bearings or bolts in its warhead, and they disperse over a wide area. They can kill you, or blow up your car if they hit it, or hit schoolchildren on a playground. And more than one rocket is fired at a time, to maximize the area to be terrorized.
Every rocket is intended to cause civilian casualties, and to terrorize every civilian not hit, particularly children (since the rockets are often fired in the morning, when children are on their way to school).
Amir Mizroch published “Shabbat Kassam” to provide an insight into how the citizens of a town under assault has to live:
The Color Red alert gives you anywhere between five seconds’ warning — if the Kassam is being fired from close to the border, for example from Beit Hanun — to 30 seconds if it is being fired from further away, i.e., from close to the Gaza coast. The rockets usually come in pairs, or threes, interspersed over 30 to 60 seconds.
The trick is to know, at all times, where you are relative to the
Strip, where the rockets come from. You need this information so that you will know which building to run to when you hear a Color Red alert. Gaza If you’re facing north,
is on your left, and you need to hug the eastern side of a building, to keep the structure between you and the rockets. If you get this calculation wrong, you are exposing yourself to a direct hit. Gaza If you’re facing south and
is on your right, the same applies. You may think this is obvious, but many a newcomer gets confused when the siren rings out. . . . Gaza Even trickier is what to do when you’re driving and the siren sounds. Here the answer is unanimous: Get out of the vehicle and run to the nearest shelter or wall. If there is no building, lie down on the road and cover your head. Just don’t stay in your car.
The main reason not to stay in your car is that rocket shrapnel — and every Kassam has ball bearings or bolts in its warhead — can tear through your gas tank and blow up your car.