Israel Matzav

13 rockets hit Sderot in an hour

Thirteen Kassam rockets hit Sderot between 9:00 and 10:00 this evening, and another four hit during the day today. There was a similar volley of rockets during the night last night. This evening, one building was damaged but no people were seriously hurt. This afternoon a car was damaged.

What's it like living in Sderot? According to Masha Rifkin, a junior at Cornell from my hometown of Newton, Massachusetts who is currently volunteering in Sderot, it's "constant terror." Here's her story (Hat Tip: Mrs. Carl in Jerusalem):

The first Tzeva Adom (Color Red) Kassam rocket warning siren went off while I was across the street from my office, using a friend's computer on the fourth floor.

As usual, we stepped into the corridor - the safest place in the apartment building - and waited.

I counted: 15, 14, 13... I had gotten to 12 when I heard the screams. It was a type of scream I couldn't recognize, half laughter, half terror, complete madness: 11, 10... it hit. A block away at most.

Everyone else raced outside; it wasn't until 30 seconds later - when I woke from my daze - that I realized the screaming hadn't stopped.

I was about to join everyone outside when, once more, Tzeva Adom: 15, 14... I had barely reached 13 when it crashed, shaking my entire body - half a block away.

My phone rang: It was my boss, Natasha, telling me to immediately come back to the office, as the fourth floor of any building was not safe.

My roommate in Tel Aviv, Jackie, was with me for the day, curious about my work in Sderot, and we ran back across the street to my office, as quickly as we could.

Natasha looked us over, then asked if we had heard the scream. She said a young mother was pushing her child in a stroller when the first siren went off.

She should have had enough time to pick up her son and rush into a nearby basement. Instead, she knocked the stroller over, child inside, and fell to the ground - screaming. She didn't stop until Natasha and others carried her and her child to a neighbor's apartment.

What do you picture when you read about Sderot's "anxiety victims?" It's this woman, convulsing, flailing. It's her inability to think rationally - to protect her child. She was only able to collapse, beating the ground.

Read the whole thing.

The next time I tell you about a Kassam attack in Sderot and I say that "no one was hurt" (or anything similar), please realize that people like the woman described above - and others described in Masha's article - are not counted as "injured." They are "shock victims" (or in Hebrew "nifgaei charada"). They don't even show up in the statistics. And unlike Masha, they aren't going to the US or (barring the generosity of Arkady Gaydamak) anyplace else in June either.

How long would your government put up with this? And what would you do if your government left you high and dry like the people of Sderot?

Digg it!

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:20 PM