First Report

Teachers, principals and social workers describing life in and around Sderot


Today (Tuesday) folks attending the Jewish Agency meetings made field trips to Sderot and the surrounding Sha'ar Hanegev region. The area is peaceful for the first time in quite awhile. For the past seven years Kassam rockets have been fired at Sderot and the area with only brief pauses. So far the current break in the attacks has been in place since last Thursday.

My group visited Kibbutz Ruchama. The kibbutz became the home for temporary classrooms so that children from Sderot and the area could study in relative peace while their schools were reinforced against rocket attacks. After a musical presentation by some of the children we met with principals, teachers and social workers. I asked if there were any surprises in how the kids reacted to rocket attack conditions. A school principal noted that the children would calmly follow instructions when a Red Alert was sounded and seek shelter. When the all clear was announced they would go back to playing or studying without much commotion...as if nothing had happened. But signs of stress would appear, sometimes later in the day or days later. A child might start a fight or begin to cry. Sometimes they regressed...bedwetting or clinging or weaker reading would occur.

One of the teachers noted that the attacks have been going on for seven years...some of these kids have known nothing but Red Alerts, explosions and injury to family and friends.

Another resident noted that even though there was a ceasefire everyone was still in survival mode...reacting to loud noises, checking to see where the nearest shelter was and keeping children inside and close. Survival mode was described as "knowing that at any moment you might die."

Later in the day we visited Sderot. There we went into the "Resilience Center", a reinforced facility that provides counseling, shelter and recreation. Inside was a display of exploded Kassams. Over the Kassams a sign noted that 16 residents had been killed by rockets and over a thousand had been physically and/or mentally injured.

Today was a sobering and troubling experience.



Kassam Rockets in Sderot Resilience Center