Hamas fired new ‘A-120’ rocket at Jerusalem
Hamas used a new rocket in its attack against Jerusalem on Monday, called the A-120, which was named for a commander killed by the IDF during the Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
The A-120 is said to have a range of about 120 km. and was seen in footage shared by Hamas of a long rocket being loaded by masked terrorists into a launcher in the Gaza Strip. Seven rockets were fired at Jerusalem on Monday, one of which hit a home in a nearby suburb, causing damage but no injuries.
The rocket is similar to the R-160, which Hamas boasted as its longest-range homemade rocket, first fired in the 2014 war, at one point hitting as far north as near Haifa.
The “R” refers to a former top Hamas commander Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, who was killed in a targeted killing in 2004.
The A-120 is said to be named for Ra’ed Al-Attar, who was the commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade in southern Gaza and a member of the terror group’s military council. His command was viewed as important due to Rafah’s proximity to the border with Egypt and the home to smuggling tunnels into Gaza.
Congressional reports claim that Attar authorized the August 2010 firing of Gradstyle rockets from the Sinai Peninsula into
Eilat and Aqaba, Jordan.
Israel claimed that Attar was also responsible for the murder and abduction of Lt. Hadar Goldin during Operation Protective Edge, and that the Rafah brigade under his command was involved in other incidents during the campaign in which IDF soldiers were wounded.
In 1994, Attar was involved in a shooting that killed an IDF soldier along the Egyptian border. In 2002, he planned a deadly attack on an IDF post near Kerem Shalom in which four IDF soldiers of the Bedouin desert patrol unit were killed.