As Hamas Cuts Gaza Electricity, Sderot Israel Bleeds

By Noam Bedein
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem, Israel ----- January 22, 2008 ....... Over 250,000 Israelis now live under the threat of the Hamas Kassam (Qassam) missiles and rockets. The Head of Israel Military Intelligence to the Israel Knesset Parliament Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, stated: "Since the first day of January until today, January 20th, over 430 Kassam missiles and mortars were launched towards Sderot, the Western Negev and Ashkelon."

In 2007, over 2,300 Hamas missiles and mortars were launched towards Israel from Gaza. How many thousands of Kassam missiles will be launched in the year 2008 towards Israel?

Living through 200 rockets in the past few days launched towards Sderot and hearing the screeching air raid siren - “Red Color - Tseva Adom" every time a Hamas rocket is launched, running for cover in the 15 seconds before the explosive makes it impact takes a very high, emotional toll.

Hearing the frightening whistle of Hamas Qassam rockets flying overhead and a few seconds later feeling an enormous explosion. And listening to that laconic newscast on the Voice of Israel: “No Damage, No Injuries, a few were treated for shock" this is Sderot reality in southern Israel.

Watching a 5-year-old Jewish boy who was crying after he saw his mother blown away from the explosion of a Kassam Hamas rockets that hit directly into his play room, where he was playing on his computer with his 5-year-old neighbor is something that no rational person from any free, democratic and humane society can forget. Witnessing both boys being evacuated to the ambulance, both shivering with shock - this is the tragic reality of Sderot.
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Over 190,000 people in Israel are under the threat of these terror missiles today, including the innocent citizens of Ashkelon, Netivot and 20 Kibbutzim and Moshavim. Over 45,000 Israelis are bombarded daily by these Hamas terror missiles and rockets.

Officially 20,000 residents, of a normal population of close to 24,000, are left in Sderot, Israel although there are those who say that it is probably less than 17,000 residents.

Each and every resident has experienced an explosion of a Hamas rocket or missile in the past few years - this is Sderot reality.

The feeling of helplessness once the air raid siren goes off, seeing young soldiers who were sent to ‘protect’ Sderot running and covering their heads with their hands, their weapons useless makes one feel impotent. Feeling that my only weapon is my news video-camera to try and document this barbaric reality so that someone would be willing to watch and listen, this is Sderot reality.

Driving around Sderot, with no seat-belt because the seconds spent unfastening it might cost me my life. Hearing the air-raid siren go off, jumping out of the car and running for cover for the closest bus stop shelter, while holding the hands of a grandmother and her crying grandchild, until we reach the bus stop, which is already crowded with parents and their children on their way to school, this is Sderot reality.

Trying not to panic in front of the children, thinking to myself that a direct hit on this bus stop would be a death trap since only 2 months ago there was an investigative report showing bus stops and bomb shelters are not qualified as bomb shelters since they are built with only 20 centimeters thickness of cement, when the requirement is 40 centimeters to withstand a direct hit. And now there are 52 lethal bus stop shelters like these scattered around the town where dozens of people take cover from the Hamas terror missiles, this is Sderot reality.

More than 10 Hamas missiles exploded in Sderot on Thursday morning, while children were on their way to school and kindergarten. My younger sister Liora, who moved to Sderot to work with the children, described their panic. As they ran to the shelter she grabbed three young children and escorted them to the safe room and started to sing out loud so they wouldn’t hear the missile exploding nearby. That safe room contained over 25 children. This was their only activity room where in the past few days they have been spending their playtime. For safety, they are not allowed to play outside. This is Sderot reality.

Hearing from families I know, as they all sleep together with parents and children in one bed, with the fear of the siren going off and no shelter to run to, since 752 homes in Sderot have no shelter or safe room, this is Sderot reality.

This past Friday, January 18, there was a memorial in Sderot’s cemetery, for Ella Abukasis, who was murdered when she was only 17, three years ago, by a direct hit from a Kassam rocket that hit her as she huddled over her younger brother, who was 11 years old at the time - this is Sderot reality.

During the memorial the same air raid siren, which should have warned Ella, again was heard throughout Sderot as dozens of mourners ran for their lives to take cover. Ella's parents did not move. They remained by the grave holding onto the headstone, crying, staring off into every direction as they too were suffering from PTS - post traumatic stress. A few seconds later black smoke billowed up into the sky from Sderot, a Kassam having just missed a kinder garden.

Will there be any ending to this terrorism of missiles being launched towards civilian neighborhoods?

How can Israel defend its own citizens, with out being condemned, when 97 percent of the targets of missiles from Gaza hit our civilian population, while Hamas terrorists fire their deadly missiles from behind the human shields of their own civilian population?

What about the hundreds of terror tunnels dug beneath the “Philadelphia corridor” in which Egypt routinely delivers ammunition, army equipment, terrorists and cash to Gaza ?

When will Israel hold Egypt and these Palestinian terror leaders personally responsible for the suffering of the people of Sderot?

When will Sderot reality change? When will the innocent people, the children of both Gaza and Sderot stop suffering due to the terrorism of Hamas?

 

Noam Bedein is the director of the Sderot Information Center, an international media organization which emphasizes the human suffering of Sderot and the Western Negev. Suffering, death and trauma to Jewish babies, children and innocent civilians as a result of Hamas Kassam terror rocket attacks which slam Sderot daily.