Human Lives Human Rights: Hamas clashed with Israel once again last year, retaliating against Tel Aviv during an 11-day war known as the ‘Operation al-Quds Sword.’
This conflict of Hamas with Israel, however, was totally different in comparison to the previous conflicts.
In the continuation of this article, these aspects of difference will be examined.
In all its conflicts with Israel until 2021, Hamas used only rockets to attack Israeli territory.
For example, in the 22-day war in Gaza, which took place in early 2009, Hamas fired 104 rockets into Israeli territory, causing very little damage to Israel.
Also in the eight-day war between Hamas and Israel in 2012, Hamas fired 1,500 rockets at Israel, many of which were intercepted and shot down by the Israeli military during the 58-day war in Gaza in the summer of that year. In 2014, Tel Aviv shot down 90 percent of the rockets fired by Hamas.
But in the 11-day Operation al-Quds Sword, which took place in May 2021, Hamas for the first time managed to use missiles instead of rockets against Israeli territory.
During these attacks, Hamas managed to target important Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashdod.
Hamas managed to fire 4,000 missiles at Israel in this conflict. The attacks caused six million Israelis to flee.
Another point to note is that, unlike previous attacks in this war, Israeli defense systems such as the Iron Dome and Patriot were basically unable to intercept the missiles of this Palestinian group. It is clear from these points that Hamas is weighing itself in the balance of power against Israel.
