Saturday People, Sunday People by Lela Gilbert

Author:Lela Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: 2013-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

A Visit to the Rocket Zone

Once my family was safely California-bound, I found an opportunity to visit the areas surrounding Gaza. On a chilly January morning, three of us made our way from Jerusalem to Israel’s southern region where so many people were struggling to live normal lives within range of Hamas’s rockets. As we approached our destination, I noticed a towering column of black smoke on the horizon, billowing from northern Gaza, where the battle was raging.

We passed the community of Sderot, and soon arrived at Kibbutz Gevim, situated just a few miles from both Sderot and Gaza. The women I accompanied on this day trip were there to assist in a temporary evacuation of the kibbutz’s senior citizens. The two Christian organizations my friends represented had partnered to provide these elders with a few leisurely days in the seaside resort town of Eilat, a welcome respite from sirens and explosions.

I talked with several genial but visibly anxious men and women as they waited for their chartered bus to arrive. Many of them had lived at Kibbutz Gevim for more than half a century; a few were founders of the kibbutz. They had no intention of leaving permanently but were eagerly looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep in Eilat, with no “red alerts” and no rush to the safe room in their houses or to a nearby bomb shelter.

“Do you think this war will make your life better?” I asked one weary old man named Mordecai. “Yes, I think so,” he nodded. “And not just my life. It will also be better for the people in Gaza once Hamas is broken,” he pointed towards the pillar of smoke on the horizon. “They’re having a hard time, too.”

A woman named Edna seemed particularly jumpy, her hands in constant movement. “Aren’t you afraid to come here?” she asked me with a troubled frown. “My own family won’t even come to visit! I have to meet them in Tel Aviv.” The sound of a large explosion startled us all, punctuating her comment. She added acidly, “Anybody who says they aren’t afraid to live here is lying.”

During my visit to the kibbutz, several residents mentioned medications that made it possible for them to function—prescriptions for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs are very much in demand, and for good reason. I learned that a few months before, a small boy from Kibbutz Gevim had been injured by a Qassam strike; in fact not a single child could be seen in the carefully-tended kibbutz playground, and I was told that most of the children are bed-wetters thanks to their high levels of constant stress. One woman described her house, which had taken a direct hit and needed extensive repairs. Other rockets had ignited fires and damaged structures. Everyone spoke of the nerve-wracking noise that never seemed to end: sirens, explosions, helicopters and warplanes.

The ordinary men and women who live in proximity of rockets—a perimeter that has enlarged considerably since 2009, thanks to more sophisticated

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