Raining Fire: Sderot as a Frontline of War
Photo by Beckie Lowenstein
At a Moroccan Synagogue in Sderot, a siren goes off to warn of an incoming missile attack. A father at the synagogue does not know which of his children to protect.
Noam Bedein, Director of Sderot Media Regional News Service for Sderot and the Western Negev, shared the story at Chabad at USC on Friday May 2, 2008.
According to the Sderot Media Regional News Service, rocket launchers in Gaza have fired over 4,000 rockets into Israel since August 2005. Ninety five percent of the kassam rockets are fired from civilian population in Gaza. Over 250,000 people living in the Western Negev and 45,000 people in Sderot confront the daily threat of rocket fire.
Sderot, a developing suburb, is a forty-five minute drive from Tel Aviv and an hour and fifteen minute drive from Jerusalem. Sderot has become Israel’s frontline of war.
“This is the first time the entire state of Israel is under threat of rockets, and it is getting worse,” said Bedeim. “A fifty minute drive from Sderot is a different reality. If this reality had happened in Tel Aviv or Herzliya, then there would be action.”
Action means assuming the responsibility to protect. The aggressors, the rocket launchers, must be stopped. The Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces have the responsibility to protect the citizens of Israel—and the civilians of Gaza and the West Bank.
According to the principles that define the just conduct of war, aggressors must (1) discriminate between combatants and noncombatants and (2) maintain proportionality of weaponry. The rocket launchers do not discriminate and they use disproportionate force—Qassam rockets explode and spray bolts and shrapnel that kill.
“This is the highest level of anti-Semitism,” said Bedein. “The goal is to hit and kill as many Jews as possible.”
Rocket fire is a war crime.
Palestinian organizations directly target Qassam rocket fire against noncombatants in Sderot. B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, writes that the "Palestinian government continues to break international humanitarian law and commit war crimes for failing to stop and participating in rocket attacks."
The Palestinian government would be the most legitimate authority to stop the rocket attacks. Considering its failure to act, the Israeli government has legitimate authority to respond. According to the principle of justice of war, a legitimate government authority must respond to aggression against its population. This response must carry the motivation of self-defense (not revenge) and a last resort. There must also be a reasonable chance of success.
Although the Israeli military employs tanks and aircraft to target combatant Palestinian rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces repeatedly fail to discriminate between combatants and noncombatants.
Israeli tank shells fire is a war crime.
Direct tank shells fire kills noncombatants. Israeli tanks do not discriminate between those carrying rocket launchers and those carrying cameras. On April 16, 2008, Israeli tanks fired on Fadel Shana, Reuters journalist and cameraman. The Israeli military’s investigation remains in progress.
Stray tank shells fire kills noncombatants. On April 28, 2008, an Israeli tank shell killed four Palestinian children and their mother in Gaza. The Islamic militant group Hamas called for revenge—more rocket fire.
War consumes itself with rocket and tank fire. Children in Sderot and the Gaza Strip grow up knowing the danger. Civilians in the crossfire can only try and take cover.
In Sderot neither school classrooms nor hospitals are protected from missile attacks. During missile explosions children hide under their school desks and sing out loud to comfort themselves. When a therapist asked children in Sderot why snails carry shells on their backs, they responded, “so they can be protected from the qassam.” Bomb shelters are built near playgrounds, just in case.
Anyone, adult or child, who occupies an area with rocket launchers in Gaza becomes a “human shield”—the Israeli tanks fire shells at the risk of killing noncombatant civilians.
“While we are teaching children to run to the bomb shelter, they [rocket launchers in Gaza] are teaching kids to run to the top of the roof because it looks good,” said Bedein.
The siren that warns of incoming missiles gives only fifteen seconds notice. Families live on the first floor of their homes and do not wear seatbelts in the car. It gives seconds more time to reach the neighborhood bomb shelter.
Children and adults in Sderot suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is not uncommon for kindergarten children to take drugs for daily trauma. There are only four counselors for 3,000 cases of anxiety.
Each individual and family in Sderot has a story to tell about living under the daily threat of rocket fire. Although the sense of helplessness, fear, and anxiety are all there, having more people to listen to their story can be therapeutic for the residents of Sderot.
“The physical damage you are able to see, but the scar in the heart is not visible,” said Bedein.
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