Sderot Background
For eight years, Palestinians in Gaza have fired Kassam rockets into Israel. The vast majority pound Sderot, the lovely, tree-lined Negev community of 27,000 which lies just across the road from Arab-controlled Gaza. The first rockets hit in 2000, at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. Then in 2005, when Israel disengaged from Gaza, Palestinians stepped up the rockets while simultaneously increasing their range and strength.
Since 2005, well over 4,200 Kassams have been fired into Israel, killing 17 Jews, wounding hundreds, sending countless others to the hospital for shock, and causing uncalculated property damage. Sderot residents live with piercing alarms, wailing sirens of ambulances and fire trucks, and ultimately, sharp whistles as rockets fly overhead and shake the ground as they hit.
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| A new study reveals that 75 percent of the children of Sderot suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Residents no longer wear seatbelts in the car because when the alarm sounds people have to leave the car and find shelter. If they have a seatbelt on it will take too long. There are economic effects of the rockets, as well. Businesses have closed because customers can’t go out to shop—and as businesses close, no one has money to buy anything anyway. It’s the uncertainty, the never knowing, that takes a toll. Occasionally, almost a whole day will pass without a Kassam. Other days, 30 or even 40 will hit. |
