The terrorist group Hamas has reportedly improved the design of its Qassam rockets in order to give them a longer shelf life. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (idf) labeled this development a “grave concern.”

Stratfor, while cautioning that the improvement may be overstated, reported on its possible significance December 7:

The idf has had two major worries about Hamas’s rockets: that their range would be increased, and that they would become easier to store. …Because of the crude and volatile explosive mixture used as the small warhead on Qassams (which essentially are built in garages in Gaza), Hamas had to “use or lose” the warheads in less than a few weeks before serious concerns arose about them detonating prematurely in storage. Qassams are militarily ineffective; their primary value is as a political tool. Consequently, to keep from wasting rockets, Hamas reportedly occasionally handed them off to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other smaller factions to launch when political circumstances were not right for Hamas to launch them itself.An increase in storability means that Hamas no longer will be pressed for time to launch the rockets or give them to other groups to use, and it now can use politically calm periods to stockpile ordnance for the appropriate moment.

For the past several years, Hamas rockets have regularly targeted Israeli townships, damaging buildings and infrastructure, and injuring and killing men, women and children. Some 2,000 rockets have fallen just since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August of 2005. Should the reported upgrade in capability prove accurate, we could see this tool of terror become more effective against Israel.