Posted on 05/19/16
Driving south in Israel, as you get closer to the Gaza border, one sees every bus stop has a bomb shelter. Over the last 15 years, tens of thousands of rockets, mortars and missiles have been aimed at southern Israel on a regular basis.
An alarm system, called Tzva Adom, or red alert, has been established to warn of incoming rockets and missiles. These sirens warn for people to head to their bomb shelters. Those living in communities closest to Gaza border have 3 seconds to safety.
In Beer Sheva, home bomb shelters are becoming the norm, in Jerusalem, Israel, new bomb shelters in apartments are being built daily.
Last night another red alert sounded. It was later called a "false alarm." However, as one mother said, even a false alarm is a successful terror attack, as rockets are to scare. Running to bomb shelters day and night, having young children sleep in bomb shelters are sad facts of life in southern Israel. Israelis may have prevented large numbers of deaths by making bomb shelters, but, "How do you show broken souls?" asks Hila Fenlon from Moshav Haziv HaAsarah.
Meanwhile, at the Gaza-Israel border, the Karem Shalom crossing is active daily. Those who believe that Gazan are deprived of their basic needs, (and luxury items) should take a look at the vast 650 duman site, with 850 huge trucks passing goods daily.
Divided into 12 areas, one for food, liquids as cooking gas, scrap metal, etc, trucks come and go, hour after hour, taking supplies into Gaza. Where the cement and wood we saw will end up is the question.
Karem Shalom managing director, Avi Shaked, said that exports from Gaza go through the crossing into to Israel and beyond, but they also must be scanned for explosives and possible dangers to Israelis.
Huge truck scanners and trained dogs are used to detect smuggled items. Chemicals and materials to make weapons have been hidden numerous times, in extremely clever ways, once in marble. One large shipment of potentially dangerous material was recently caught and publicized.
Israel spent a quarter of a billion dollars to build this facility, to help Gazans. Tons of supplies go into Gaza daily, along with billions of dollars of world aid money, where does it go? When will those donors ask for accountability?
