Living with Rocket Fire in Sedrot

I found this story on the One Family Funds website. One Family is a charity that provides aid to the families of terror victims in so many ways. Please go to their site and take and consider adding them to your Tzedaka list. You can find their home page by clicking here

By Noam Bedein
Noam is the media director of the Sderot Information Center for the Western Negev Ltd, an independent media outfit with one purpose: To present the press with the human face of a Jewish community under lethal attack.

The siren, "Tseva Adom" COLOR RED, went off at approximately 9: 15 pm. I took out a video camera, donned press credentials, ran outside, and, three seconds later, and there was an enormous explosion nearby. Running towards to sound of the explosion on a wet road, I arrived as an ambulance evacuated 2 boys, both ninth graders, 13 and 14 years old respectively, to the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. There was a poodle of blood and a shoe right near the side walk, and 4 parked cars whose glasses had been completely shattered.

Another teenage boy was crying, speaking on his cell-phone, shivering as he explained to his mother what he'd just been through, and then he was evacuated with his friend standing next to him to another ambulance. They were both treated for shock. This was missile attack number 57 since some kind of 'Cease fire' had been declared by the Israeli government. On the streets of Sderot you would hear, over and over,: Oh yeah: "we cease - they fire."

This 57th missile attack landed on 'Macabees ' Street in Sderot, which landed only 10 seconds after the siren . A friend of the boys who was hit by the missile related that they were running home, but didn't make it there. People in Sderot have to think twice before they go out somewhere, not knowing if they will be able to take cover in 15 seconds or less, some times with no siren - like the day before, when the residents of Sderot were woken up from at 6:30 am, by missile attack with no siren going off. At the scene of the attack. people stood around, expressed their feelings, their thoughts. They did not know what to do first to express their outrage. They discussed wanting to go burn tires, or block roads, not sure what to do, but to do some thing.

They kept repeating that there had been an average of two missile attacks a day during this so-called 'cease fire,' with no response what so ever.

A grandfather came out of the nearby synagogue from where he had been studying, crying and upset completely hopeless that he could not protect his grandson, who had been rushed to the hospital, where he is fighting for his life.

A man who saw the boys writhing in pain after the attack had approached the boys and called the ambulance , after seeing that the bones were sticking out one of their legs, and the other one with a completely twisted ankle.

All this occurred on 'Maccabee' Road in Sderot, less than one week after the celebration of Hannukah, when Jews recite 'Al H'nisim', the prayer for miracles.

Unfortunately, it's not Hanukkah every day, even though there are miracles that happen here every single day. These miracles should happen only when Jews take an action - as in the case of the Maccabees. People in Sderot depend on miracles, with a feeling of hopelessness. Not able to protect their own family, they are separated from Israel and the world, where no one is taking action about the fact that Jewish blood is being spilled, and with no government seemingly ready to protect them. .

Leaving the scene of the attack, this reporter spotted a social worker going house to house, asking if every one is ok, visiting families who come out on the porch in the pouring rain to say hello. A mother, caring for her baby, holds the hands of her two young children who are crying and in a state of panic, asking for a cab to take them out of there, in the middle of the night To where? She did not know.

How did Israel get to the situation where mothers are scared and hopeless for the protection of their own children, when people are scared to go out of there homes, out to the playground, to school?

What was on everyone's lips in Sderot, however, is that the Prime Minister of Israel kissed Abbas on both cheeks on Saturday night, and welcomed Abbas to dinner the Prime Minister residence, where Abbas and his friends were greeted by PLO flags that decorated the PM dinner table.

Al Aksa Brigades of the Fateh, under the command of Machmud Abbas, took credit today for the missiles that they fire at nearby Ashkelon yesterday..

Reporters who called to the office of Israel's Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Foreign Minister as to whether they would demand that Abbas disarm his Al Aksa Brigades went unanswered.

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Epilogue: Doctors solemnly told the Voice of Israel radio at 2:00 AM that one of the boys was fighting for his life from the direct missile hit, and that his life was indeed in danger. However, both boys emerged from the operating room alive, but with months of operations that they will both have to endure on all parts of their bodies that absorbed shrapnel from a Gaza "cease fire" missile.