Posted on 01/25/24
Sderot, Israel - Jan 24, 2024 - The Sdot Negev Regional Council, in collaboration with the Hebrew University, published a survey today entitled "Returning home after being evacuated." The survey identifies the "government announcement to destroy Hamas" along with "additional budgets for the community" as significant factors influencing the residents' decisions to return to their homes.
I visited Sderot many times over the years for family simchas and media tours. The tours usually followed rockets and missile attacks from Gaza, showing Sderot's precarious situation.
Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi was one of the southern leaders in attendance at the IDF Southern Command HQ when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with local and regional council heads from the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, together with the members of the War Cabinet, including Defense Minister Gallant, Minister Gantz, Minister Eisenkot, Strategic Affairs Minister Dermer, MK Deri, other government ministers, and regional leaders.
"We are determined to rebuild the communities and the kibbutzim, in what is called 'the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip', to return the residents to their homes and bring about much greater prosperity than there was before the war. To this end, we need – first of all – to achieve victory over Hamas, but also to carry out the necessary actions in the civilian sector; therefore, we have convened the War Cabinet today, together with the team of ministers, stated the Prime Minister.
Further, he added, "We rely on our heroic soldiers and excellent commanders to achieve the military goal. At the same time, we also rely on your leadership, in your capacity as the heads of the communities, working together with the Government ministries, to achieve this rebuilding and this prosperity."
I have seen Sderot grow and prosper from the time when a piece of cement pipe, the “caterpillar,” was used to protect children in a park from rocket attacks, to the new "state of the art" police station.
My last trip was different. I arrived on January 10, 2024, three months after the deadly Simhat Torah invasion, on a solidarity fact-finding mission of RCA rabbis sponsored by the Mizrachi Zionist Movement. Time had stood still in the once thriving city, and the still-standing white sukkah was finally coming down three months after the holiday.
Under the cover of a barrage of rockets, Hamas terrorists invaded Sderot on that Black Shabbat Simchat Torah morning of October 7, 2023. Shooting to kill, as residents hid in their home shelters, dozens of Hamas terrorists captured the police station, and murdered its defenders.
In 1995, Rav Dovid Fendel founded the Hesder Yeshiva of Sderot, known formally as the Max and Ruth Schwartz Yeshivat Hesder of Sderot. He met us at the site of the destroyed police station where much of the fighting took place on October 7, not far from the Yeshiva. Rav Fendel spoke passionately of his students who were called up to serve on Simhat Torah. He retold the stories of the battle, of people who were shot and killed on the streets of Sderot where we were standing.
Beginning October 8th, the 30,000 residents of Sderot were evacuated to hotels in and around Jerusalem and other locations in Israel. The date when they will be allowed to return keeps getting extended, with the end of February the most recent projection. The future of Sderot’s economy and education system is uncertain. Families, children who grew up under the constant threat of rocket fire from Hamas in Gaza and were lucky to survive the terrorists who overran their city and need ongoing trauma counseling.
Finally, students of the Yeshiva who are not on active service and or have been released from service have returned to the Yeshiva to learn. As a sign of solidarity, current and former students have also returned to the Beit Midrash. Before beginning their studies on the first day back, they completed the hakafot interrupted on that Simhat Torah morning.
Over the years the Yeshiva has invested to better protect its talmidim with thicker cement walls and roof structure as the rockets got stronger, so today the Beit Midrash is a protected space. Rabbi Ari Katz and Rabbi Fendel mentioned that the proposed government funding does not include the Yeshiva.
When the security of the area near the Gaza border is restored, tens of thousands of residents look forward to returning. But until the Hamas threat is eliminated, families and communities are dispersed and coping the best they can, waiting to return home, those fortunate to have homes to return to.
Photo essay includes photos of Sderot and the Yeshiva and views of Sderot from the Yeshiva roof vantage point.
