Terrorism Targets Sderot Israel Children

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- December 19, 2007 ....... Sderot. A tiny dot on the map. If we think Israel is small, then Sderot is a 100,000 times smaller.

In Israel and abroad we hear about Kassam missiles slamming into this remote, dusty desert Negev town, but it means almost nothing to most of us. It just ain't in our comfort zone.
And so we rationalize that if you live in this place spelled Sderot, Sterot or Shertod then perhaps you deserve to get whatever comes. After all you can move to Ra'anana, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Neve Ativ or Hafia, right?

Wrong!

Sderot is an Israel town. It is not in Gaza or the West Bank. We are not talking politics!

What we are talking about is the daily trauma that the young children of Sderot go through. That the Israel government does not have the funds to help these children!

According to the Sderot Media Center over 30 percent of the children of Sderot (6000 children) suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. The above figure for anxiety victims among children is considered unusually high, in comparison to other war zones, where the average percent of anxiety victims among children is 10 percent.

Anxiety symptoms in children include sleeping difficulties, nightmares, sweating, development regressions, wetting beds, and fear of the outside.

Jewish children running for their lives as Kassams fall in Sderot.

"Physical damage you are able to see. The scar in the heart - that's what you cannot see," said Osnat Ben Haim in Sderot on the day that her house was struck by a direct hit, when she describing how her six year old son was having a sandwich in the kitchen only two minutes before the Kassam exploded in her kitchen. The boy was not killed, but he has been traumatized."

The children of Sderot share many jokes among themselves. Among the most popular is: "Why does the Snail have a Shell? The children answer: "So it can be protected from the Kassams."

In 2004, two Kassam rockets fired from the Jabalya refugee camp landed in the western Negev Israel town of Sderot. One hit a house, the other landed in the middle of an alley filled with playing Jewish children.

One rocket killed Yuval Abebeh, 4, and Dorit Aniso, 2, members of the same family, as the were playing together in the family sukka, a festive hut which Jewish traditionally build for the Sukkot festival.

Over 31 people were wounded, seven with medium or serious injuries. Doctors are trying to save the life of a seriously injured girl, 10.

"A small child can no longer play outside? Why does a child playing in a sukkah [booth] have to die?" Yuval's mother, Asras Chahayo Caso, asked through her tears.

"We were sitting outside my mother's house. My son was playing. Everything was normal. I watched him. He was having so much fun."

"Suddenly there was a distant explosion," Caso recalled. "We understood it was a Kassam, but didn't stop to think where it had landed. And then there was another explosion right next to me."

"Everything was black. Everyone was screaming. I searched for my Yuval. Suddenly I saw him next to me. His body was mutilated. I don't think he had hands. I immediately understood he was dead. There was no doubt," the distraught mother said.

"Yuval was everything to me," she said.

Ronen Edri, reached the site of the Sderot attack immediately after the rockets fell. He saw a boy with head and body wounds lying in the street and tried to give him first aid. "There was a great deal of hysteria all around," he said. "People were screaming and crying from shock. I tried to stem the boy's bleeding, and then emergency Magen David Adom (ambulance) personnel arrived and took him away."

"After the rocket fell, a man, maybe 20 years old, took the boy in his arms. He was in shock. He ran with the boy, he didn't know what to do," said Zina Shurov, 48, a neighbor.

"I saw one little child without his legs. We tried to help the other one but it was too late," said neighbor Haviv Ben Abbo, who rushed to the scene when he heard the boom. "All our town is crying."

Hamas took credit for the fatal terror attack. A Hamas leader in Gaza camp said: "We will keep firing rockets, we will continue Jihad (Holy War) until all of Palestine is returned."

Two years ago, Ella Abuksis, 17 years-old was murdered in Sderot, Israel as she was defending her 11-year old brother with her body when the siren went off. Sharp shrapnel fragments pierced through Ella's body. Her breathing stopped but her brother survived.

According to official estimates, Hamas is capable of firing dozens of rockets a day into Israel. These estimates were behind evacuation plans that were drawn up last summer for Gaza Strip periphery communities in the event of a large-scale ground invasion into Gaza.

Noam Bedein, director the the Sderot (Sederot Shedrot) Media Center states that since that terror attack took place dozens of Jewish children have been physically wounded by the Qassams (Kassams) missiles.

"But in reality, all of the children of Sderot are victims of severe emotional trauma," Bedein told the Israel News Agency. "Every family has experienced the trauma of a missile alert and the subsequent explosions. Every street, every road, every neighborhood, every family has suffered. Psychologists state that after just one Qassam attack, every terror attack afterwards has a direct emotional impact on the children as they believe that missile will be falling from the sky onto them."

The schools of Sderot are not protected against Kassam missile terror attacks.

"Can any parent imagine what is like to send their child to an unprotected classroom when at least three missile attacks per day take place expecting him or her running through the small corridors to reach a secure room within 15 seconds or less."

There are 14 schools and 3,578 students in the city. They are spread out as eleven elementary schools and 2,099 elementary school students, and six high schools and 1,479 high school students.

Hava Gad, the Parents Association spokeswoman stated: "No one can expect an 8-year-old boy to run through the school corridors along with 70 other children and reach the safe areas outside in less than 15 seconds, after hearing the tzeva adom (color red) alarm. What should one tell an 8-year-old boy who wants to go back to third grade because the classroom there is protected? According to the IDF’s Home Front Command only 57% of students unprotected classrooms in Sderot and the Western Negev can reach a secured area in 15 seconds or less. Instead of learning, children in Sderot play Russian roulette on a daily basis.

At the Sderot ‘Smadar’ kindergarten, five year old children recently had the chance to jot down what dream they have, by putting notes in their little ‘Kotel’, a small wall that was built in the kindergarten .What does a 5 year-child ask for in Israel? For a bike, a doll, a game.
In Sderot the one dream that these five year olds have is one: "Stop hearing the air raid siren ‘color red’ and stop the missiles from raining on us".

"It is crucial to donate funds to needy families in Sderot, giving them a chance for a normal vacation, and allowing the children to experience fun and quiet at a summer camp outside this war-zone region," says a weary and tired Bedein.

"A typical day at Sderot for a child begins at 6:30 in the morning when Hamas launches the first rocket of the day, and the red alert goes off, warning residents that they have 15 seconds to escape from an exploding rocket. A child's home in Sderot is sadly becomes the bomb shelter. Parents do not allow children to play on the streets, to hang out with friends at the park or even ride their bikes. Three of the 10 people murdered by terrorism in Sderot where children. Three were murdered because they were playing outside and did not have time to escape to a shelter."

Bedein states that there is not enough psychologists to treat the children of Sderot. "Teenagers are failing in schools, and only half of the twelfth graders will graduate this year because they cannot study in such a tensely charged environment of terror. Children want peace, children want happiness, but instead there is a memorial for Ella Abuksis, 17 years-old, killed because she saved her younger brothers life when a rocket fell, and shrapnel flew towards them. Nurseries and kindergartens, the prime of innocence are being threatened daily."

The rocket reality in Sderot has economically crippled the families as well says Bedein. Two weeks ago, a Kassam landed in a toy factory. Thirty workers were temporarily layed off because the factory suffered severe damage. This happens frequently. Many families want to move out of Sderot but are financially unable to because they cannot sell their homes. No one wants to buy.

"Journalists, foreign officials, and government representatives from around the world come to visit Sderot to see the situation and suffering with their own eyes," says Bedein.

"Only the past week two UN officials from the Office the United Nations Special coordinator for the Middle East Process to visit with traumatized Jewish families and victims of this terrorism against civilians. During the visit, the UN visited the homes of the Amar and Sasson families on Sinai Street in Sderot, which was partially destroyed in the rocket attacks on Thursday, December 13. The Amar family was at home at the time of the rocket attack and did not have enough time to escape to a bomb shelter. Aliza, the mother, who is wheel chair bound was blown off her chair because of the force of the rocket fall, crashing into the kitchen wall. She was hospitalized for shock and injury, along with her two daughters. Her neighbor, Shula Sasson was also injured and was treated in the hospital for brain damage coused by the shock. Both families, along with their neighbors have experienced at least 7 rocket hits on their street."

Bedein notes that Fatah and Hamas terrorists launch rockets from Gaza, timing them to land in the mornings, and afternoons when parents are leaving and picking up their children from schools thus more likely to hit civilians.

"Where is the international Red Cross when a Sderot child is bleeding from razor sharp shrapnel from a rocket attack?" Bedein asks.

"Where is the UN in condemning these heinous acts of Palestinian Arabs terrorists as they target the Israel civilian population in Sderot and the Western Negev? Why are there no humanitarian rights groups from the United States and Europe condemning these acts of terror and standing up for the children of Sderot? In Israel, I ask such human rights groups as Peace Now and Women in Black, have you forgotten the children of Sderot?"

"Sderot is inside the Green Line of Israel," says Bedein. "There is no political issue involved here. Sderot is a city no different than Herziliya, Afula, Kfar Sava, Rehovot, Hadera and is just as Israeli as Tel Aviv. Why the silence? Why does the world ignore blatant war crimes against Israel which Sderot bears the brunt of? Sderot is not a settlement, or in occupied territory. Sderot is simply an example of what will happen to the rest of Israel, Ben-Gurion Airport, Jerusalem, Haifa, Metulla or Eilat when Hamas and Fatah start to shoot Katushya rockets imported through Egypt from Iran."

Bedein, who is presently operating the Sderot Media Center on a shoestring budget asks for donations. "When was last time you had a chance to actually sponsor with your money - a Media Center which is literally the voice and face of the 180,000 Israelis in the Western Negev under daily missile terror attacks?"

“A problem is a problem if some one makes it into a problem my father David, who works as a journalist once told me."

"Publicizing the hell and the miracle of survival through writing, filming and taking pictures. That is what I do, what the Sderot Media Center does 24 by 7. To record the human effects, the ongoing tragedy of merciless terror attacks on innocent people, children and babies," says Bedein.

"After hearing the human stories, the trauma of what people are going through, hopefully people around the world will open up their hearts, minds and homes to the people of Israel. We critically need immediate financial assistance to make this awareness campaign into a reality," says Bedein.

Why is the Israel government doing so little at present to protect the residents and children of Sderot? Israel is less than a month after the Annapolis peace summit, a week after starting all out negotiations with the Palestinians and only weeks away from US President George W. Bush's historic visit to Jerusalem. A large-scale operation in Gaza, officials said, would without a doubt prevent all of this from happening. And many in the Israel defense establishment would not want to risk the lives of dozens of soldiers through a ground invasion. It appears that the only game in town is diplomacy, slow diplomacy.

But the children of Sderot can not wait for papers to be signed months, if not years from now.

The Israel News Agency asks the public to please help these children by donating to the Sderot Media Center.

Whether it be 50 NIS or 100,000 US dollars, please do not wait for another Kassam missile to explode. Children have died, they have been injured. They are all suffering from severe emotional trauma.
Please donate something today.

These children are your children. The children of the only democratic nation in the Middle-East.
How much longer should they suffer?

How much more blood and tears will be shed until the world takes note of their pain?