The past 20 hours have been exceptionally rough for us here . Hamas and its affiliates have launched 134 rocket attacks against innocent men woman and children in and around Sderot.

It is a situation that is unnerving for everyone in the affected areas, especially the elderly and young children.

The Elderly Can't run To A Bomb shelter
The Elderly Can’t run To A Bomb shelter

Since this current escalation began I have received 5 phone call from my mother-in-law, wanting to know what is going on and asking “is everyone o.k.”

Mom is 83 and has spent the past 17 hours in her bomb shelter afraid to come out to eat or even go to the bathroom. My mother –in –law is not the only elderly person suffering today.

Little children were awaken last night by “Tseva Adom” alarms sounding and by the window shaking “Booms” of both incoming Kassams and outgoing artillery fire from the IDF, as they took shelter in their parents bed.

You need to keep in mind that EVERY child in Sderot below the age of 18 have lived with this all their lives, they have no idea what it is like to live without fear!

Likewise every mother who has given birth over the past 18 years has had to live with the daily fear for their child’s life, whether they are outside playing, walking to school, while they are at school and even asleep in their own beds, if they will ever see them alive again.

To give you some idea of the situation since I sat down to write this newsletter 15 more alarms have gone off. That’s one every 17 words I have typed and you have read to this point.

Today in Sderot, it is a pleasant, sunny 88. Kids should be outside playing in the water at one of the many parks we now have in Sderot, but they are empty today.

Kobi
Kobi

Is it any wonder that research shows that 94% of the children in Sderot suffer from Accumulative Traumatic Stress Disorder; well the researcher call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but in reality there is nothing “post” about what we live with. It has been a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year situation for the past 18 years.

It is summer break from school and kids are home but, will parents let their children go out to play, will they take them to the public pool or will this summer be like too many summers past, where kids have had to stay in their home, within the fifteen second time frame to reach their bomb shelter?

Not only are the residents of Sderot under this constant threat, but, it is reported that half of all Israelis live under the same fifteen second or less run for cover threat.

How would that be excepted where you live, if half of the population was under the same type of threat. Better yet how would you feel having to live with this daily threat for the past eighteen years?

So when we ask for your help and your support it is with a firsthand knowledge of the stress that comes when you have fifteen seconds to run for your life; something we pray you will never experience.

If you have never seen the video “Rocket City” click here to see it. Probably one of the best, realistic and accurate accounts of life in Sderot.