Rocket ravaged Sderot

They say the town of Sderot is ravaged by rockets from the Gaza strip. We went there the same day the flimsy truce with Hamas was broken on 5 November. Presumably it was Hamas militants responding to an Israeli airstrike in Gaza the evening before. Rockets did fall that morning but most of them to the north, closer to Ashqelon. The alert was on cautious in Sderot and as we arrived at the media centre we were briefed on what to do in the event that the town sirens sounded. The whole town is fitted out with an elaborate and effective alarm system and bomb shelters in the event of rockets being fired. The sirens allow 15 seconds to get to safety.

The Sderot media centre tells us that some 7000 rockets have exploded in Sderot to this date, 10,000 in total. That’s a lot of rockets. Twelve people have died so far. You wouldn’t know it by looking around the town. Even today on an alert day people still go about their business. But if you look a little closer there are indeed rocket-created potholes in the pavement and cement. What look like splattered bullet holes and other structural damage from bits of shrapnel litter the walls of the surrounding buildings. One man showed us the inside of his home and the holes in his ceiling from flying shrapnel from a Qassam rocket that landed outside his apartment block. Most of the homes that have been hit are repaired quickly by the municipality, or some level of compensation is given and the structure destroyed although this is rarely necessary.

I can imagine the stress of living with this everyday. Residents speak of symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress in their children. The adults are constantly concerned about the ‘what-if’ factor. And the town is certainly not a bustling economic centre so I do wonder why people stay here. But ask anyone who is able to leave, why they stay in the face of attack and they talk of home, purpose and principle.

Contrary to popular belief, Hamas are not the only armed group within Gaza who swear on the destruction of Israel. In fact, there are six and any peace process or cease-fire needs to include these other groups. It is no good to have Hamas sign a cease-fire when others can send there own rockets – Hamas of course, needs to have more control in their territory. And what is even more interesting is that the rockets that do leave Gaza are all group-identifiable based on their wing design. All six groups: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah-Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine have their own wing design and rocket names. All are traceable to a particular ideology you might say.

We drive out of Sderot and stand on a hill overlooking the Gaza Strip, the Mediterranean glistening on the other side, some 15 kilometres away from us. But in between us and her waters is a world of hurt. So many people, some one and half million caught in a fight most of them have no interest in. You blame the Palestinians for firing rockets, and you blame the Israelis for their policy of collective punishment that allows such a barricade of Gaza Strip. Each side is right and each wrong. People are people and the conflict is bad for everyone. A human story is a human story; the only requirement is that you are human. Residents of the Gaza Strip are as innocent of victims as those of Sderot.