Characteristics of High-Trajectory Fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel

What is high-trajectory fire?
High-trajectory fire is a general term for ballistic fire, including rockets or mortar fire. Its advantage, from the enemy point of view, is the large distance between the launching site and the target.
Mortars have a shorter range than rockets, and have been widely used by the terror organizations in the Gaza Strip throughout the uprising, beginning in 2001 (about 500 attacks per year).
Every attack involving high-trajectory fire is likely to include a number of rockets or mortars, and for this reason a distinction must be made between the number of attacks and the number of launchings. The number of launchings is the number of rockets/mortars launched.

Data
Since the beginning of 2005, about 5700 rockets and more than 4000 mortars were launched towards Israel (current to January 11, 2009, 0600 hours).
2008 was a peak year for this type of attack: more than 2000 rockets and more than 1600 mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Towards the end of the “Lull” (June 19 – December 19, 2008), and most significantly, following the official announcement of its end, there was a drastic increase in the number of attacks of this type, and the extent of the high trajectory fire climbed to the level  it had been at the beginning of the year: hundreds of attacks every month. This escalation led Israel to undertake Operation Cast Lead, beginning on December 27, 2008.
Thus, from the beginning of the “Lull” (June 19, 2008) until Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008), 361 rockets and 303 mortars were fired towards Israel.
From the beginning of the operation and until January 11, 2009 (0600 hours), about 530 rockets and more than 200 mortars were fired into Israel.

Casualties in attacks involving high-trajectory fire
27 people were killed due to high-trajectory fire from the beginning of the conflict until the end of 2008. 18 were killed by rocket fire and 9 by mortar fire.
In the early years of the conflict, only one individual was killed by mortar fire (2001), however, from 2004 there was an increase in the number of fatalities, as a result of the improvement and upgrading of the rockets, as well as the introduction of standard manufactured weapons which were smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
 
During the conflict (current to January 11, 2009, 0600 hours), 1275 individuals were wounded as a result of high-trajectory fire. In the year 2008, the total number of wounded was 464 individuals.