Probably not faster, but more elegant and general:
function Optim∇ᵢWᵢⱼ(αD,q,xᵢⱼ,h)
# Skip distances outside the support of the kernel:
if 0 <= q <= 2
Fac = αD*5*(q-2)^3*q / (8h*(q*h+1e-6))
else
Fac = 0.0 # or return zero(xᵢⱼ)
end
return Fac .* xᵢⱼ
end