In this current situation, volunteers and institutions are trying hard to help maintain hope for the civilians who are forced to live in daily fear of Qassam rockets falling on their homes and families.
"I am a local resident and also work here with traumatized people,” said Yehudit Bar Hai, who works as a volunteer at NTL (Israeli Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War) in Sderot. “Three years ago we set up a unique plan called Car Patrol—psychologists and other professionals who treat people at their homes. The psychologists visit different towns, winter or summer, and under any circumstance. The patrol car didn’t stop working even when there are very serious incidents taking place."
“This is not a one-time event such as an accident, Bar Hai continued. “We’re talking about eight years here, and dealing with the surprise factor. [The rocket attacks] can happen anywhere and at any time,” she clarifies. “You can be sitting with a friend at a coffee-shop and suddenly there is a Red Alert (rockets alarm). Your heart misses two beats, you check to see that your head is still connected to your shoulders, and you call everyone to see if they’re OK. I might be shopping, and suddenly there is a Red Alert, and people just panic. I leave my cart and help people out.”
Bar Hai knows first-hand what it is like to be the victim of a rocket attack.
“My car was once hit by a Qassam rocket while I was shopping. The people who are injured are people that we know, people who are close to me and to my husband. We know their kids, we are familiar with their homes that get bombarded.
“In the midst of all this, we try to run a normal life, try to live in this nightmarish situation. The hardest feeling is when I meet people who can’t seem to find any hope. This is a certain sign of a traumatic situation.”
Chen Avrahams, a resident in one of the Kibutz settlement surrounding the Gaza Strip, said, “From a humanistic stand point, the situation isn’t simple. No offense to Gaza Strip residents who are also being bombarded right now, but living for eight long years under rocket attacks isn’t simple.
"My son and I went to my sister’s place to gets outside the range of the rockets, but yesterday this place also came into the rockets’ range, and the alarm was sounded there too.
“We can’t go back home,” Avrahams added. “On Tuesday night there was a mortar attack on the Kibbutz at 2 a.m., and there was a direct hit on a house where a girl was sleeping. Last Saturday, while visiting my sister’s, mortar shells fell on both sides of our house at the Kibbutz. There is no way of hiding from it; therefore there is no other choice but to pack up and move to a place which is safe, or at least safer for the time being.”
Empowering The Children
Many organizations havecome to Sderot in order to support the residents in different ways. One newly founded organization aims to turn victims into active contributors, and to turn takers into givers.
Dr. Anna Geifman, of Boston University, one of the project's initiators told The Epoch Times last week that the project’s goal is to prevent the residents from becoming passive and needy. The project intends to make children understand that their unique experience and point of view can help others too.
Assisting others, explains Gifeman, will give children inner strength. It can manifest in small thing, such as cleaning public areas or planting trees and flowers. “And that's demonstrates another important idea—whatever you invest, you will receive,” she explained.
“We don’t want the children to think they are victims, no matter what happens or how hard the situation is”, she said. There are other ways to contribute; for example, explaining the situation of the residents of Sderot to the international community.”
Gifeman also told of other organizations that take similar measures. Teenaged girls at a religious high school in Sderot have recently put on a play, in English, as part of their curriculum. The girls tell their personal stories, and also interact with the audience. “It isn’t like a psychological treatment,” she says. “Their roles are very active.
“The amazing thing is that they turn the situation upside down, and say that they will not become victims, they will not become pawn in the hands of the Hamas,” Gifeman says. She says that despite the suffering, real occasions of heroism can be seen.
Gifeman is also a volunteer teacher in Sderot. Her goal is that the children will not always think about the Qassam rockets flying through the air. "They should grow intellectually, live normal life and grow. The only way to really help them is to turn them from passive receiver into active contributors."
The Suffering in Gaza
"We simply know that in order to solve this issue, it is not right to be dragged into more violence”, he said. He said that the siege on Gaza had caused total disruption of lives of the people living in Gaza.
“There is no cement for the most minor construction and repair. Everyone knows of the shortages of water, food, electricity and fuel. There is no export of goods—the economy is absolutely suffocated. This situation has been going on for a very long time, and has been initiated by Israel, with the support of the European Union and the United States. A warehouse of pharmaceuticals was bombarded yesterday, hospitals are collapsing, there is no more room left in the cemeteries, and the sewage is flooding the streets. This reaction isn’t beneficial, will not solve anything, and is not proportional.”
Chen Avrahams understands this, but sees why the IDF mission had to take place.
“This situation is very complex,” he said. “In the midst of all this, the ones who suffer the most are the civilian groups on both sides. I understand that the military operation was inevitable because it was necessary to put an end to this ongoing torture, but I deeply regret that it hadn't been possible to reach negotiations, and that it is taking so many lives. I am glad though, that Israel is still sending food and drugs into Gaza.”
