By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
SDEROT, Israel – Israeli newspapers reported that two qassam rockets had been launched into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip during the third week in December. Since the beginning of 2009, there has been a ninety percent decrease in rockets launched from Gaza into Israel.
Still, as the year anniversary of the fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas in the Gaza Strip approaches, residents of the towns in southern Israel are hesitant to let down their guard. Many residents are continuing to build bomb shelters to protect against Hamas rocket attacks. One such resident is Ramon Dahan, mother of five, who lives in the town of Sderot, less than a mile from the Israel-Gaza border. Dahan said that most of her neighbors’ houses have been hit multiple times from Palestinian rockets, and the current cease-fire has allowed Dahan to finally build a shelter.
Israeli border towns have experienced an economic improvement as a result of the ceasefire. Many middle class Israeli families have moved down to the South, as they have been outpriced from neighborhoods and towns in central Israel. The economic upturn in southern Israel contrasts with the situation of their Palestinian neighbors, who live less than a mile away, and are in the midst of the area’s worst recession as they attempt to rebuild from the fighting.
Despite the outward improvement, the impact of years of cross-border rockets remains. Though many of the Israeli border towns look like a town found in suburban America, one therapist in the Sderot area, Judith Bar-Hay, estimates that at least twenty percent of the town’s residents suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bar-Hay says that there are also growing behavioral problems among the area’s youth.
The rockets launched from Gaza in December came despite a moratorium on attacks announced by Hamas, the ruling party of the Palestinian territory. One report said that the attacks may have been in retaliation for the death of a fifty-year-old Palestinian farmer who was reportedly killed by IDF forces in the al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. No group has claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.
For more information, please see:
Ha’aretz – Two Qassams Hit Israel, in Second Gaza Rocket Attack This Week – 16 December 2009
Ma’an News Agency – Israeli Media Claims Projectiles Fired From Gaza – 16 December 2009
NPR – Shell Shock Lingers For Israelis After Gaza War – 15 December 2009
Associated Press – With Gaza Cease-Fire, South Israel Blossoms – 14 December 2009
Ynet News – 2 Rockets Fired From Gaza; None Injured – 13 December 2009
