High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Qassam rocket (Arabic: r kh al-Qass m; also Kassam) is a simple steel artillery rocket filled with explosives, developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2010. The Qassam gained notoriety as the most well-known type of rocket deployed by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilian targets during the Second Intifada of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. From 2000 through present, Qassam rockets have claimed the lives of 22 Israelis and one Thai national. Qassam rockets are named after the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed branch of Hamas, itself named for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a militant Syrian preacher whose death during a guerrilla raid against British Mandatory authorities in 1935 was one of the catalysts for the 1936 Arab Revolt.