This week, school started for the majority of children in Israel (my eldest actually started first grade last week).
The start of school is always a memorable occasion. The promise of a brand new year. New stationery. Blank notebooks. New teacher. New children to befriend.
For the children of Sderot, the start of the school year will be memorable, but for very different reasons.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers scrambled to evacuate babies from a day care center in rocket-scarred Sderot on Monday after a Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip thudded into its courtyard.
The rocket was one of seven to be fired from the Gaza Strip into the western Negev on Monday. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, calling them “a gift for the opening of the school year.’
Twelve Sderot residents, mostly children, suffered from shock after the strike on the southern town, and were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment.
Frantic parents across the city – already furious over the government’s failure to protect them and their children from the near-daily rocket fire – reportedly pulled their children out of schools on the second day of the academic year, and said they would not send their children to school on Tuesday.
Natalie, a caretaker at the center, told Army Radio that “in the adjacent classroom, which was closer to the site of impact, they didn’t hear the alert until shattered glass fell on them. It’s a matter of seconds between the ‘Red Color’ alert and the moment of impact.”
“Some of the children were screaming and we are trying to calm them down. I also considered abandoning the city, I left for a month in the past. I’m still thinking of leaving. I have a child and I won’t let him experience this,” she continued.
—-
To calm jittery residents ahead of the school year, the military dispatched more than 200 soldiers to accompany students back to school in Sderot and instruct them on emergency procedures.
And this from Ynet:
Sderot residents told Ynet that the rockets fell while their kids were on their way to their schools and kindergartens. “When the alarm went off, the bus driver stopped near one of the fortified houses. He asked the girls to run and hide there,” a mother said.
“My daughter called me terrified and in hysterics. Now she has to start her school day in such a state. I still don’t understand why they decided to open the school year in Sderot. Our children are studying under Qassam fire,” she added.
Take a second and think of the depravity involved. These terrorists are deliberately trying to murder children. This in addition to deliberately placing their own children in harm’s way.
