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border and landed inside Gaza or misfired into the sea. There were multiple reports of homes being destroyed by PIJ rockets; one such incident resulted in four Palestinian civilians, including three children, being killed when a PIJ rocket struck a home. There was no international outcry for these people, despite an outlawed terror group causing their deaths.
An eye-opening stat from the conflict is that Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed more Palestinian civilians with its rockets than it killed Israelis.
Additionally, every single one of the 1,250+ rockets that were fired by PIJ were war crimes, as they were all fired towards Israeli civilian populations. None of them was specifically targeting military sites
in Israel. To make it even worse, many of these rockets were fired from within civilian populations in Gaza. This means they were effectively double war crimes; civilians in Gaza were used as human shields whilst civilians in Israel were targeted with rockets.
There was also a difference in the way civilians in Israel and Gaza acted when the conflict was underway. When PIJ terrorists launched rockets into Israel, videos show Gazans, particularly youths, running out into the streets and celebrating as the rockets were being launched towards Israel, with many shouts of “Allah Akbar”. Gazans clearly did not fear Israel’s airstrikes because they knew the IDF uses pinpoint accuracy when striking Gaza.
In Israel, however, every time rockets were indiscriminately fired towards Israel, more than a million people heard sirens sound and were forced to run to shelter. Why? Because every one of them was a target. When rockets are fired from Gaza no one can tell where they will land or who is the target.
There is another difference in how the two sides protect their civilians. In Israel,
it is mandatory for new homes, businesses and schools to be built with a bomb shelter. Israel has also invested heavily in public bomb shelters, early warning alert systems and, of course, the Iron Dome.
The Iron Dome is an anti-missile system that scans the sky for rockets. When a rocket is detected, if that rocket is heading
towards a civilian population centre, an Israeli rocket is fired up into the air to intercept the terror rocket. It is amazing technology that Israel has developed to protect its citizens.
This technology comes at a cost. For every rocket Israel shoots down, it costs the Israeli taxpayer around £100,000. This means that when hundreds of rockets
are being shot out of the sky during the conflicts, the cost goes into the millions.
Israel also has the David’s Sling missile defence system, which is designed to counter much larger rockets aimed at Israel. This most recent conflict with PIJ was the first time Israel used David’s Sling in an active war situation. Two long-range rockets were fired from Gaza towards Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv, and David’s Sling intercepted both. The cost of David’s Sling, however, is much higher, costing around £800,000 per interception.
Compare this with how Palestinian terror groups syphon off international humanitarian aid funds to line their own pockets, and use imported concrete to build terror infrastructure, such as terror tunnels and fortified storage facilities. Israel invests heavily in protecting its citizens, whilst Palestinian terrorists exploit their citizens and use them as human shields.
A further interesting point is how Palestinian terrorists claim that Jerusalem, or Al Quds, as they call it, is the holy city they want to liberate from Israel’s possession. Yet, the terrorists of Gaza have purposely fired rockets towards Jerusalem. Israel is
the only party protecting the holy city. This speaks volumes for Israel’s enemies and their spurious claim to Jerusalem.
Returning to the civilian casualties in Israel, PIJ rockets claimed the lives of two people. The first was an 80-year-old Israeli woman, Inga Avramyan, who was killed when a PIJ rocket struck her apartment. Unfortunately, even though Inga’s apartment building had a bomb shelter, Inga was unable to reach it in time before the rocket struck. Eight others, many of them
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