With the soundtrack of a war Against others in the background, a group of Israelis fight their own battle. While the tanks detonate artillery towards the Gaza Strip, the rush to extend their help to another Jew makes them ignore the noise. On some walls of this community center converted into a war room, there is the impact of one of the dozens of rockets that have targeted this Israeli city, located less than a kilometer from the border with Gaza. Nothing seems to indicate that Sderotwith its flower-filled streets and multiple playgrounds, became ground zero for the terror of Hamas. Although the loneliness of its wide avenues, the traces of blood at its bus stops and its police station in ruins give some indications of the horror that has changed to Israel forever.
Two vans with more than a dozen Hamas militants entered Sderot, spreading panic during the tragic early hours of Saturday. After killing the civilians who were in the street and those who were trying to escape in vehicles, he They barricaded themselves in the police station. Until late into the night, the sounds of explosions and gunshots were repeated while part of the 35,000 inhabitants from the southern city were waiting in their homes. Portable missiles, snipers and special forces units attempted to subdue the attackers, but to no avail. At least 20 people were killed in Sderot, along with 12 soldiers, police and firefighters who tried to stop the barbarity.
Am Yisrael Jai, the people of Israel live
Five days after the attack, the city lies deserted. The opulent police station is in rubble, after the Israeli Army decided demolish it with Hamas militiamen inside. But, in Sderot, no one wants to talk about that day. They have already done enough during the first days. Now that the Israeli Army has controlled security in the border area with Hamas, they believe that there will be time to assimilate the darkest yesterday of their lives. They only care about today. “Today, in Sderot, we have people coming from all over the country willing to help,” he says. Avia, a social worker from the city. “We have this idea of ’Am Yisrael Jai’ [el pueblo de Israel vive]for which we Jews help each other each other,” he tells this newspaper in the midst of the chaos of the volunteer center.
“When emergency situations occur, such as wars or the coronavirus, we put aside all disputes what we have and we are going to one all together“explains this nun, who was at home when Hamas militants stormed her city. “The message for everyone is to go together because we only have one objective,” she adds. That objective is recuperate. Therefore, they ignore the hums in the air every time one of the Israeli Army tanks fire into the Gaza Strip on the first line of defense, just a few meters from the community center. “We were born to help our neighbors, our brothers, our country,” insists this woman dressed in a mitzapahthe handkerchief used by married orthodox jewish womenin compliance with a code of modesty and modesty, which requires them to cover their hair in public.
Feeling of suffocation
The reproaches and official investigations into a Army that took 20 hours to remove the attackers of its streets. Now, the mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi, only asks the Government to evacuate its citizens, as they have done in the rest of the affected border cities. “In addition, we have received a relatively very, very low budget from the State to carry out the evacuation,” he denounces. Yaron Sasson, spokesperson for the city council, to EL PERIÓDICO. “Davidi has demanded that the Government, at a minimum, give us additional budgets to feed everyone who is here and is not part of the rescue forces,” he adds.
All those people are many. Citizens coming from different parts of Israel wanting to help. For those who are from Sderot, visiting that place and allowing themselves to be soaked in the solidarity of their people makes them forget a feeling that has suffocated them since Saturday. “We don’t feel safe“, Explain Gitit Zamir Butra, director of the International Defense Center of the municipality of Sderot. “You feel all the time that you need to close the door and be quiet; we have rockets all the time“, he says. “We cannot regret, we cannot mourn the people who were murdered or kidnapped; We don’t have time for that,” says Nayer Davidi, the mayor’s daughter, dedicated to coordinating the volunteers.
“The house is my defense”
Related news
“Now we need survive and that is what we are doing,” he confirms. Oblivious to the sounds of the tanks, Davidi, like anyone in this charitable scene of battle, defends his love for his country. “Israel is the most humanitarian country in the world because they we give water, electricity and food to those who kill us,” emphasizes the 25-year-old. What the people of Sderot want is live a life they’ve never had, not even before the tragic Saturday. Less than a kilometer from the Strip, They have always been the target of rockets from Palestinian militias, like the seven that fell this Thursday and caused six injuries. “The rockets have to stop forever, not for three months or three years, forever,” says Sasson.
The municipality spokesperson speaks for the people. “If the Army and the State intend to carry out a large scale operation in the Strip, it must be a continuous operation, a long operation, not a limited operation, to really finish it once and for all as it should be,” he says forcefully. Many of the people from Sderot, like Nayer Davidi, have already returned home. Others, the majority, like Avia, have never left. “Many people said my house is my house, the “Home is my defense, it is the place that matters to me,” he concludes. Without being carried away by emotions, he goes off to attend to his neighbors, absorbed in his collective project for today.