Pointless rocket attacks now even more pointless
Some rockets lack warheads, Israel claims
Israeli security sources say some of the Palestinian rockets fired far into Israel during the Gaza flare-up have lacked powerful warheads because they were stripped down to increase range and spread alarm over a wider population.
“Our assessment is that the prestige of setting off alarms deep in Israel, and being perceived as fighting on, is as important to them now as spilling our blood,” an Israeli official briefed on security cabinet decisions said today.
The official and two other sources who spoke to Reuters on the matter did not specify how many of the almost 900 rockets and mortars fired since fighting erupted on Wednesday had been deliberately sapped.
The official said “not a few” of the rockets reaching Tel Aviv and cities closer to Gaza were designed for much shorter ranges but had been shorn of their weighty warheads so that they could fly further. “They’re pipes, basically,” said the official, who declined to be identified.