Welcome to Sderot

How is it to live in Rocket City?

A day is coming when death will be gone forever, when G-D will wipe away the tears from our eyes… G-D has spoke, He has given His word, He has promised. Baruch Ha’ Shem. Unfortunately we are not there yet. For one group of people I have met, they know death , pain and tears all to well. Sderot is that little town of about twenty thousand people. Iit borders the Gaza strip and in the past has been the target of Kassam rockets fired by terrorist from Gaza. Today it was calm as a “cease fire” is still in effect, but only G-D knows what tomorrow holds.

Kobe was at work when he heard a rocket explode next to his place of work. He and a co-worker left their office and ran towards the bomb shelter… The last thing Kobe remember before becoming unconscious, was flying through the air and hitting a parked car. He laid on the ground not having any feeling in his leg. There was a piece of shrapnel that went through his back and into his heart. His right leg was also laid open to the bone. There were ( and still are) numerous pieces of shrapnel throughout his body. He would spend the next year and a half in the hospital having one operation after the next to reconstuct his right leg and remove shrapnel from his body.. It is by the grace of G-D he is alive today. We have had a chance to talk and I had an oppertunity to spend time with him on several occasions.  

Life in Sderot in unlike any other place… Unless you absolutely have to go some where you stay in door. When you go out you are always looking for the next bomb shelter to run to… when you drive somewhere you do not fasten your seat belt. This is the only place in Israel where seat belts are forbidden. Buckling up prevents drivers and their passengers getting out of a vehicle quickly. You are not to play your car radio or use i-pods… they may drown out the warnings of an incoming rocket attack. You are not to have a shower if there is nobody else in the house to hear the alarms. Last month, a woman who ignored this rule was washing her hair when she was blown off her feet.

Rudy was with her three year old son when she heard a woman’s urgent voice repeats the words, “Tseva Adom, Tseva Adom,”

Click below to hear the Tzeva Adom Warning
[audio:adom.mp3]

over public address loudspeakers. In Hebrew this means, “Code Red”. It signifies a missile is on its way. From that first warning you have fifteen seconds to find shelter. Before she and her son could make it to safety she would lose part of the right leg and her son in the attack. Today she walks with a limp and with the help of a prosthesis. She also walks with a heavy heart, full of pain and sorrow.

Leo is a father of three. He was a taxi driver until that day when he heard “Tseva Adom, Tseva Adom,” as he was leaving his cab for the closest bomb shelter, he was hit in the head by flying shrapnel. That is all he remembers. When he woke up in a hospital bed he could not see because his eyes were bandaged. When the bandages did come of he would be blind in his right eye and have diminished sight in his left eye. While he was in the hospital his wife was also in the hospital giving birth to their fourth child. Today Leo has lost his drivers license and can no longer work. His wife works part time as she is needed by her employer. All of Leo’s children have been born in Sderot and all their lives have lived with “Tseva Adom, Tseva Adom,”