“In the morning they fired more rockets. But we’re used to it. I am 25 years old and have been living with rockets here in Sderot for 20 years. Nerya Davidi is a digital marketing expert with a degree in political science who was born and raised in the city of 30,000 people, just a kilometer from the Gaza Strip. During these hours he had to calm his younger sister, nineteen, who was having a panic attack. This had never happened to her before, but since Saturday morning the people of Sderot have been living in fear that it could happen again, that Hamas terrorists armed with machine guns could ring the doorbell, break into the street and shoot and beat anyone passing by Kidnapping children. After Saturday’s bloodbath, the police and army are securing the streets and hunting down the last terrorists who have not yet been found.
Raya’s story
Raya Slae-Twersky is a 28-year-old engineer and mother of three children, ages 7, 4 and 1. On Saturday morning, the terrorists stood at the door of his house but did not break in. “My husband, who is 30 years old, was drafted into the army and is now fighting. But around my house, even in the last few hours, I heard gunshots, the situation was not safe. So I decided to set off for Jerusalem. Yesterday morning he loaded all of his things into the car and drove off when the situation calmed down while telling his children to stay at the shelter. “I gave the computer with WhatsApp to the eldest, 7 years old, and asked him to warn me or his grandfather if the terrorists came back. In the end we managed to leave, I drove while the roar of rocket explosions could be heard, but we reached Jerusalem with my children. On Saturday the situation was terrible, in Sderot, members of Hamas mercilessly killed the people they encountered, sometimes stole their smartphones, photographed the corpses and then uploaded the photos to the victims’ Facebook profiles.”
panic
Let’s go back to Sderot. “In the morning – says Nerya – they told us that the operation to secure the city was completed, but it is impossible to be sure.” And then there are the rockets that continue to be fired from Gaza. “But we are used to it, we know what to do, how to run to the shelters. What happened on Saturday is something big and different that needs to be stopped. My sister also asks me in these hours: How can we know that they won’t come back? When can we feel safe in our home? These monsters killed everyone they met, not only Jews, but also Arabs living in Israel, even 12 Thais who work here as laborers. What’s the point of all this? I read someone on social media who wrote: “We need to understand Hamas’ reasons.” But do they realize that? Where are the feminists? Where are the humanitarian organizations?” Nerya’s father, Alon Davidi, is the city’s mayor. Yesterday he was on the street, walking among the rubble of the buildings destroyed in this sudden war, even near the remains of the police station that the Israeli forces had bulldozed because terrorists were hiding there. He reiterates: “The country and the government need time.” Do we have to stay locked in our house for months? We will do it if it helps the army fulfill its mission in Gaza and destroy the leaders of Hamas and Jihad.” Eva Pincus was born in Uruguay, but her family moved to Israel when she was six. He works in the town hall of Sderot and says: “The city has not emptied. Some families were evacuated to nearby towns such as Beer Sheeva, about forty kilometers from Sderot. But the majority of the population remained in the city, despite concerns about new rocket launches, despite the shootings that continued for almost three days and fears that terrorists were still hiding somewhere. Unfortunately, each of us knows at least one person who was killed or kidnapped on Saturday. I spoke on the phone to a friend who was on a nearby kibbutz at the time of the attack. Shortly after the line went down, we hoped she and her family had reached safety in an emergency shelter. Instead, the terrorists killed her, her husband and their three- and five-year-old children. This is the situation.” The habit of rocket launches from Gaza is such that bunkers have been built all over Sderot; there are almost 300 of them.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED