South. To the people who chose to stay under fire. Registers "Sderot" on Waze and receives a warning that the target is in a danger zone. Some say that the starting point is also dangerous, but for me Ofra is home, and the place that miraculously is currently the quietest in our burning country. In a few hours, when I meet Igor, he will argue with me and claim that Sderot is the safest city in Israel. Each one and his home and fortress and the story he tells himself. Waze is unable to locate my place due to war disruptions. The dysfunction of the app makes me feel like the end of the world, like mirror images to the general feeling of losing instructions on how to move on from here.
On the way, somewhere, she meets for half an hour the man who is drafted into the reserves. I bring him the chocolate nut pie I baked for Shabbat, which he closed in the army. Man and woman, gathering strength from each other, each continuing his mission.
At the entrance to Sderot checkpoint and security checks, the city streets are deserted, the shutters of the shop windows are closed. Here and there cars cruise the road, but for hours I didn't see a single pedestrian. Of the city's 32,5 residents, about 000,<> remain. From the city center you drive to the Anemones neighborhood, new and beautiful whose buildings rise to heights. You entered the building where the Shochat family lived. The lobby at the entrance and the glittering stairwell are far from the image of a development town, more reminiscent of Givat Shmuel.
"Since we immigrated to Israel 27 years ago, we have never left Sderot. This was also the case in all previous rounds of fighting, and it is the same now," says Igor Shohat, 50, in a quiet and confident voice. "Like me, my wife and mother don't want to leave the city. My son serves as a combat medic in the Gaza Strip and there's a chance they'll let him go home for a short vacation, so it's important for us to be close to him and come pick him up as soon as possible. Besides, we have two of our dogs and one daughter's dog, and they are all like our children. We won't leave them, and it's hard to find a place that will host three dogs. On top of that, my wife is an essential worker. She is a shift supervisor at Shufersal and is currently the most senior employee who opens and closes it. I'm self-employed and currently there's no work, so I'm using the time to volunteer in the city."
Igor immigrated to Israel from Belarus with his wife Insa. In Israel they raised five children: Victoria, Maria, Dalia, Ariel and Lev. The two eldest are already married and live in Sderot. Ariel is in reserve in the envelope. Young Lev, a twelfth grader, stayed home with his parents. Igor routinely works as a door installer, but now he volunteers and distributes medicine and food to those who remain in the city and are afraid or unable to leave the house. "I signed up for a group of volunteers at the municipality. This morning I went out to distribute medicine. We go to homes, take the magnetic card, go out to buy the medicines and go back to distributing them to people. When I'm at home I go crazy, it's better to go out and volunteer."
A different reality
On the morning of October 7, Inessa woke up Igor. He himself, due to hearing problems, does not wake up from the sirens or the noise of missiles. "My wife got nervous because my mom was out walking the dogs. She likes to go out with them early in the morning, and we already have a negative history with her. One time she got a piece of shrapnel and another time there was an alarm, and instead of running to the nearest shelter, she stayed against the wall. It was actually very lucky, because a missile fell right between her and the shield. So first thing we went out in the morning to look for her."
After the grandmother returned home safely, they began hearing gunfire and saw the videos of terrorists running amok throughout the city. "I went downstairs, locked the door to the building and the stairwell. Soldiers came to search and went from house to house. We have friends and friends who were killed. The son received Order 8, but could not leave the house. It wasn't until Tuesday that I drove him to the base. Sderot is the safest place. There are safe rooms, shelters and shelters everywhere, there is an adjacent Iron Dome and we are a small city that does not really challenge Hamas. Ashkelon absorbs more."
Igor and Lev take me on a tour around Desolate Boulevard. First we drive to the outskirts of the city to the Iron Dome, which is struggling to withstand the load of missiles. There have already been more than 250 hits in the city, 150 of which resulted in a direct hit on a house or vehicle. "Before the color red, we hear the Iron Dome and then the color red and immediately the missile. No time at all. Today, judging by the angle of the missile, I can already guess with pretty good accuracy where it will reach – us, Ashkelon, Ashdod or the center."
Sderot Mayor patrols the scenes of rocket hits | Shmuel Buchris
From there you drive to the scene of a fall in a tall building. The missile hit the laundry hiding place near the safe room. The apartment he had entered was empty, but the house next door had a light on. In the parking downstairs is more commotion, broken iron, an overturned arbor, window parts, shattered car windows. Also in the building opposite the glass railings on the balconies were damaged. But that's still good compared to what's left of the Sderot police. A building that was cut down symbolizes the magnitude of the disaster in the city where 45 men, women and children were murdered. Scorched earth that tells of the heroic strength of members of the security forces and civilians who fought to save lives and sacrificed theirs.
We also pass by the place where Adi Baruch, who enlisted in the reserves, was killed by a direct hit by a rocket, just before her husband asked to propose to her. From there to the town hall plaza. Here there are signs of life. Two female soldiers with weapons guard the place. Volunteers come and go. A truck unloads trays with hot food. Under a huge shed, in perfect order, are piles of dry food and hygiene equipment distributed into boxes and from there to residents as needed. Igor and Lev load crates onto the vehicle.
Municipal employees are scattered throughout Eilat, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and the center. "The mayor walks among everyone and our employees have established an extension of the municipality everywhere," says Yaron Sasson, the spokesman, who remains in Sderot. "We established schools, we opened welfare offices. Everyone works around the clock together with the volunteers. The evacuation of Sderot is the largest civilian operation that has ever been here. It's a city with 32,45 inhabitants. In all previous operations, Mayor Alon Davidi did not agree to the evacuation. This time, after terrorists were inside the city, after 30 people were killed here, <> of them local residents, he realized that the reality was different and asked the government to evacuate on his own initiative. Evacuation is not mandatory. Whoever wants stays, and we take care of everything that is needed. There are two food chains, Victory and Shufersal, that open for a few hours, Super-Pharm, and an HMO that works in an emergency format."
"My heart is burning"
I go out with Igor and Lev to distribute the food. The addresses and phone numbers are entered in an organized application. Igor calls one of the residents: "I'm from the municipality, I have a food package for you. Are you home?" Some people go out into the street and bring the packages home by themselves. To the others, Igor brings the food to the door.
While driving red color alarm. I can barely hear, but they're used to it. Stop the car in the middle of the road and go down for cover. We're ducking right in front of a house whose tiled roof had previously been hit directly by a missile. I jump in panic from the sound of the explosion. It's much stronger and more threatening than I imagined. "It's a fall. Iron Dome didn't work," Igor explains. From that moment on, and so for the next few hours, I had a nagging headache. It's not dehydration. I drank a lot. It's a headache from the force of the explosion, maybe from fear. Igor and Lev are not excited. They are still trying to convince me that Sderot is safer than Ofra. I understand that we will not be able to decide the argument. Everyone and their madness.
We leave for the next address. In the parking lot you can see a charred window in the building next door. Everything is quiet all around. I photograph the window, not knowing that the impact is fresh and we are actually the first to arrive at the scene. Climb to a nearby building. Dolev, a young man who works in the IPS, opens the door for us. "My heart is burning," he says. "The explosion was loud. The whole house shook. I don't usually open the door without a weapon in hand."
He lives alone. He stayed in the city because he thought the municipality was supposed to approach him and offer him a place to evacuate. Igor explains to him that because the eviction is voluntary, he has to contact the municipality. Dolev says he will. We go back down to the parking lot, which suddenly fills up with ambulances, police and soldiers. Only now do we realize that the rocket whose powerful explosion we heard landed near the address we reached. The forces are searching the building. The missile penetrated the stairwell window, hitting two apartments on the third floor. The destruction is great, but there are no casualties. There were no residents in the damaged apartments. People were actually on the floor below, but they got out unharmed. This is what another fall looks like that doesn't even get to make a headline.
Moving on. You arrive at an older neighborhood, a building where there is no elevator. Igor climbs up to the fourth floor with the heavy crate, I climb with him with a bag of trays. The door is opened by a 50-year-old woman. She thanks us with sad eyes. When I ask why she stays in Sderot, she can't find words to explain. The tears that flood her eyes speak in her place.
Descending the stairs, Igor shyly says that he recently received a disability percentage. He was injured in a car accident in the neck and since then has not been able to lift his right hand aside. I'm amazed at how he manages to carry heavy crates to the fourth floor. "That's another reason for volunteering. The kids laugh at me and say I'm disabled and can't do anything anymore, so I want to prove to them that I can do anything and even help others," he wipes the sweat from his forehead and smiles with satisfaction. At the end of the division, Igor hurries. He must drive a doctor to Netivot who has no other way to get there. He drives her in his private car and returns home just before sunset.
Nonetheless, we continue to grow
In the meantime, Inessa came home from work and took the dogs out for a walk. "I go to work every day. On Monday afternoon, I went to the supermarket. But then there was a fall next to us and there was a power outage. That means cash registers aren't working, so we had to close. But since Tuesday we've been working half a day. In no war did we leave the city."
Why?
"I don't know. Like this. It's just obvious to both of us. Since we immigrated to Israel, we have been here. We have friends who, like us, immigrated to Israel and came to Sderot, but over the years moved to Ashkelon or Ashdod. Today they are hitting more missiles there than in Sderot. In our small country, there is nowhere to run. And we don't want to either. I work on myself not to think bad thoughts. Don't panic. As soon as I'm hysterical, the children are hysterical too. I've seen all the most horrifying videos. The pain is inside. I'm sensitive and crying, but I'm strong. It's good for me that I'm working and busy and can help people. Here in Sderot everyone is crazy. There are those who are quiet crazy like us, and there are those who are crazy loudly, who shout, who run in red and fall. In the city, some receive treatment, but I say that all Sderot residents must receive psychiatric treatment."
Will you go to therapy?
"I'm not going yet, but I'm thinking about going to a family doctor and asking for help. It's a must."
Together with Kfir Ziv, the photographer, we go out to the balcony. The sun descends to the west and its light is especially beautiful and soft. In the background are the sounds of shelling Gaza. Below us is the beautiful Anemones neighborhood, empty of people, with a park, an educational center and the cemetery at its center. "We joke that we have the quietest neighbors possible," says Insa. But the cemetery in the heart of the neighborhood, surrounded by buildings, some of which are still under construction, manages to lift my spirits. If it is now surrounded by buildings, it means that Sderot has grown and expanded its border in recent years, despite all those who rise up to destroy it.
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