Southern Israel near Gaza Border - Nov. 4, 2018 - In southern Israel, after being under attack from fire balloons and arson kites for the last seven months, one need not travel to burnt-out forests to see the destruction; the Israeli roads near the Gaza border have frequent black patches on them showing fire damage.
From Gaza, Sons of Zawari have announced that they will give an agreement mediated by Egypt a chance to work. However, Hamas and other militant groups have repeatedly stated they will not stop their activities at the border until the siege is completely lifted.
Senior Israeli officials have responded that if calm on the southern border will continue, then the ceasefire agreement will signed.
Since "disengagement" in 2005, when all Jews were forced to leave the Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip, 25,000 rockets have been launched from Gaza into Israel. Half a billion dollars has been spent on Israeli bomb shelters in the area. The Iron Dome was developed to intercept and destroy the missiles headed to populated areas; however, some Israeli communities near Gaza border are too close for the Iron Dome to be effective. Complicating a response, 97% of rockets from Gaza were fired from residential areas.
In 2017, there were no rockets. People in southern Israel got used to the quiet. Sderot was thriving, its population growing and new building evident. With new barrages of forty rockets and missiles on Sderot on one Shabbat, residents have the feeling that they are the "backyard" of country. After looking for reports of the bombardment after Shabbat, and finding none, residents feel they must no longer stay quiet and speak out.
There was no alarm on Friday night as people returning home from Shabbat dinners had to take cover with no time to get to bomb shelters, only to cover children and pray. People are enraged at the government for not protecting them. After 17 years of living life in a war zone, on the front lines against Iran and Jihad, the people of the southern border communities have decided to talk to world, and protest, to block traffic to the Erez Crossing to gain attentio
Over 100 students from Shaar Hanegev High School who have grown up under threat of terror, have begun a five day protest march from Sapir College in Sderot to Jerusalem under banners and wearing tee-shirts, "Let Us Grow Up in Peace."
This past summer Hamas trained 18,000 children in military-style terror training camps, while Israeli children slept in bomb shelters. By law cement walls in bomb shelters are over 15 inches thick and are built to withstand a direct hit as happened in Sderot. One safe room saved the lives of a mother and three children when their home suffered a direct from a Gaza rocket.
In 2008, Sderot opened its first "Caterpillar Park." Large cement pipes that provide protection for children on the playground were decorated as a caterpillar.
The Yeshiva in Sderot, as all school buildings in the area, had to build concrete missile-proof roofs to protect the Beit Midrash and their students. From the roof of the Hesder Yeshiva, one can view the construction going on today in Sderot. On the roof is a Hannukah menorah, made from Qassam rockets which were fired at Israel from Gaza, turning terror into light.
Not only Sderot, but the city of Ashkelon, Kibbutz Nir-Am, and Moshav Netiv Ha'Asara along with other southern Israeli towns have added bomb shelters along roads, at bus stops, at street crossings, as well as on new school yards.
"Seventy countries gave Gaza $5.2 billion to rebuild, with the result that a $1.5 billion tunnel industry was developed," said Noam Bedein of the Sderot Media Center. Trees have been planted to shield the Israeli trains going to Sderot from the view of Gaza terrorists, plus the train station was built to be bomb protected, informed Bedein.
Thousands of Israelis have been injured over the years. Plus tens of thousands suffer from PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Meanwhile, life goes on, building continues, land is scarce, but new homes are being built.
Near the end of the day touring, Bedein spoke to BJL from the backyard of a new home built in the new neighborhood of Netiv Ha'Asara, with the Erez Crossing in the distance behind the line of protective trees.
