Four days after the Hamas offensive, a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers are still tracking commandos, under the howl of anti-rocket alerts. Meanwhile, civilians hide in fear of further attacks, or decide to flee their homes.
After the astonishment in Israel, the army says it has regained complete control of the southern territories, located near the Gaza Strip. But local residents remain in shock from the attacks they suffered from Hamas terrorist commandos. In Sderot, just a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, even though the situation has stabilized, tanks are still rolling through the streets and detonations ring out. Like here in Ben Gurion, this residential neighborhood, now ghostly, three minutes by car from the police station in ruins after the Hamas attack.
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Along the streets: riddled, charred cars with broken windows, debris, as well as a bloody item of clothing bear witness to the violence of recent days. Yet another detonation convinced all the members of this family to leave their apartment towards Eilat, the southern tip of Israel: “We’ll decide once we leave the danger zone, but right now we don’t know where we’re going. We follow the movement, whatever“, says Salior, the father of the family.
“We wanted to leave beforehand, but when we heard that there were terrorists infiltrating, we barricaded ourselves at home.”
Salior, a father from Sderotat franceinfo
With his wife, they try to close the trunk of the car, which contains four small suitcases: “My wife is very anxious, I try to stay cool and put on a good face for the children, so as not to worry them…“, he confides.
As her little boy lists the essentials, such as clothes, food for the dog and the cot, his sister shouts: “Mom, it doesn’t fit!“. The father asks everyone to get into the vehicle: “Children, buckle up! Who hasn’t worn their seat belt?” But before leaving, Nanuli, the grandmother, says to us in despair: “We are very scared, we have to leave quickly because there is a red alert. It’s a mess, we are very worried, here in Sderot, we are really suffering a lot.“
“We are the only ones who stayed”
Despite the calm of the streets, the city remains on alert: no siren, for example, to announce the whistle of the rocket flying over the family. Time to take shelter, in the parking lot, a couple who seem alone in the world on their balcony beckon to us: the man indicates that he is coming down. “I’m Nicolaï. Two years ago there were rockets, but there were no terrorists in the streets, that’s what’s incredible. Many people died. In my building, there are 18 apartments, but we are the only ones left. I’m here with my wife and my parents live right next door, my father is 85 and my mother is 76. Hes can’t move, that’s why we can’t leave“, he blurted.
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This factory employee says he has enough to survive, living in his “mama“, the protected space of his apartment: “I have everything I need at home, from water to food. Even cat food, we bought a lot of it“, he almost smiles. But he also becomes serious again: his fear, like that of other residents of Sderot, is that there are still Palestinian fighters hidden in the city, ready to attack by surprise.
“This failure terrorized us”
For its part, the Israeli government has warned of a “long and difficult” war against Hamas, recommending that residents stockpile food at home for at least three days. Quickly, supermarket shelves were robbed. For Benjamin, a 38-year-old Franco-Israeli, rushed to a supermarket before closing, so it will be three liters of water per day and per person, dry and canned food, a flashlight, medicines, first aid kit. Enough to stay a long time in a protected area.
“I have four kids at home, I’ve gone shopping before, but there’s an anxiety-inducing side that maybe tells you you haven’t done enough. I’ve experienced a lot of wars with Gaza, a lot of rockets… But we’ve never experienced that. There, we have a real fear. This failure terrified us, because we said to ourselves that perhaps we are not as strong as we claim to be. Such a failure of the army, security services, intelligence is not normal“, he denounces.
There was no longer any question of fleeing to northern Israel: several reservist members of his family’s army were sent there, for fear that another front would open on the Lebanese border.