Sderot, the Gaza border and East Jerusalem

Today was an especially fascinating day for our group,Lehava. We learnt more about the conflicts that face Israel regarding the two state agreement and settlements. We started the day in East Jerusalem learning about the settlements and that considerations that the municipalities and government needs to consider in the agreement of a united city of Jerusalem. I really found this to be an interesting thought, whether Jerusalem should become a united city and take down the ever controversial security fence, facing dangers that the fence reduced; or they can keep the status quo, what seems to be the safer option. After this we went to lunch and then continued our journey to the once unknown city of Sderot back in 2000, it has now become what some call the bomb shelter capital of the world. Sderot is a city about a kilometer from the Gaza border making it very vulnerable to terrorist agendas in the Gaza strip. Since the beginning of rocket fire from the Gaza strip towards the city in 2000, bomb shelters have become essential to the lifestyle of people living in Sderot. Since the Second Intifada, thousands of Qassam, mortar and Grad rockets have been shot at the city, since then the rocket fire has decreased significantly to around every other to every two days, which is unbelievable to think of as a reduction. These attacks has caused lifetime psychological and physical trauma and shock for the people living in Sderot, especially the children growing up in such an environment. It was very interesting to listen to the stories of people living in Sderot and their families and how they have been affected by the rockets, for instance one of our guides worries constantly about his grandfather who has a lack of mobility in his age and his grandson worries about him when a siren goes and whether his grandfather will make it to the bomb shelter in the allotted time. The radar based alert system, gives citizens 15 seconds to get to a safe place such as a bomb shelter before the rocket hits, this is an unbelievable life to think about, to only have a 15 seconds to live, to come out of the safe place to find the rocket hit right where you were standing 15 seconds prior. I can't even imagine what it's like to live that daily. We went to the overview towards and actually saw a live rocket shot within the Gaza borders which was unbelievable to see, also quite frightening. After that we went to the security fence at a military compound near the Gaza border, near to where Gilad Shalit was abducted and has since been in captivity for around 4 years since 2006. I was really amazed by this day, it really opened my eyes to the truth behind what we see on the news. After our day in Sderot we went back to Beit Yehuda to pack for our free weekend.