Grad exploded in Ashkelon today

Boy , was I happy this morning that the Diller kids from Baltimore have left town... No offence.

At 8:30 am I was food shopping for the weekend, with my daughter Shir at Cosmos shopping center, right outside of Ashkelon, this is why we didn't hear the siren or the Grad rocket that fell and exploded not too far from the Delila beach....

I started getting calls from my husband, my mom, friends, Gily (who was at summer day camp at the time but was still updated thanks to a concerned parent) .

On the way home, like every Ashkelonian who owns a car we drove past the place where the rocket exploded. I couldn't believe how close it was to a fully occupied apartment building of 10 floors!

Another miracle escape: Nothing happened , just a few damaged cars, blasted out windows, and trauma victims.

My first thought was: "Thank god the Diller kids are back home..."

My mother in law called, she swims at the beach every morning. They were all in the water when the lifeguard told them to go out of ther water quickly and lay on the sand ... in a few seconds they heard the boom not far from them. And, in my mother in law own words: "well , it wasn't fun" .... Shabat Shalom and a safe weekend to all.

See YNET report: "Rocket explodes in heart of Ashkelon"

and photos on ASHKELONIM

wed - update from June Narunsky

Update letter from June Narunsky - a mother and grandmother, living in Ashkelon Dear family and friends, Its Wednesday, the twelfth day of the War on Gaza. We went to bed last night, hoping for a quiet and peaceful night. Air force jets and helicopters went over the city in waves, every twenty seven minutes of so. Its amazing what you do when you are woken up in the middle of the night. Every night since the war started we have had UMFVs (unmanned flying vehicles) buzzing about overhead which in a strange way is comforting. This morning we woke to sunshine and sirens going off every few minute in fact while this is being written to you we have a siren going off. This might sound silly to mention but the IDF declared a short pause to allow humanitarian aid to get to the regular people, the people in Gaza who are being used by the Hamas. So I am guessing the Hamas grabbed all the aid, bugger the people and here we go again. This time the rocket fell on the outskirts of Ashkelon. It is so surreal to look out of our window, Ashkelon has literally become a 'ghost town' the home front command which is a wing of the army has closed down all malls and stores and any place where a few people could congregate to minimize injuries. Only supermarkets are open and pharmacies. Every now and again soldiers from the home front command come round and knock on the doors and make sure everyone is okay. A large number of parents have to work and so drop their children off each morning at the municipal shelters of which we have 116 in Ashkelon. The chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Chabad is also the chief Rabbi of Ashkelon and happens to be our Rabbi and a friend and he has organized that Chabad will go from shelter to shelter taking toys, books and puzzles to the children. As for our family, our grandchildren have been very good when all is said and done. They don't have a safe room in their apartment, they go to the safe area with (their mom)Anthy at once but it is of course beginning to tell on them. Little Shirazi has a sore 'tummy' and Meshi took to wetting the bed a couple of times. Ben is still too young to really know what is happening but does not like the siren and now also watches his sisters to see what they do and he goes with them. Oh heck, there goes another siren… third one, however like I was saying, Anthy's apartment block has a shelter in the basement and all the young mothers take their children there to spend the day. They can run wild, play, make a noise and generally let off steam. Mel and I go about as normal a life as possible in the circumstances and have a safe room in our apartment into which we go when there is a siren. We have our computers set up in this room so can communicate with everyone. I hate to think what our phone bills will be (not just ours but everyone's) because as soon as we hear the boom we call everyone near and dear to make sure all is okay! Daily chores like showering and going to the loo are no longer a pleasure!! I used to love a nice leisurely shower in the morning. I have now got it down to four and a half minutes, in the shower, soap, rinse and out. 6 minutes when I wash my hair!! I sure as heck don't want to be caught with my pants down and a few times I just sank down onto the 'throne' when the sirens wailed. I am seriously thinking of changing me name by deed pole to Speedy Narunsky!! In spite of all this, I have to admit life is stressful and like the whole of Am Israel we pray for a quick conclusion to this war. We pray for our soldiers and cry when they are hurt or killed. We do realize that we have to change the reality of the Hamas because they are like the Taliban, they hide behind the shirts of their women and bibs of their children, like moles they dig tunnels under the houses to hide in. They do not give a stuff what happens to the rest of their population, the women, the children, the sick, infirm and old. So why should they worry about what happens to our populations, for all these years children have been born and grown up for eight years in the little town of Sderot, a place where they know nothing but fear. A place where they run off the bus and dash home as fast as they can after school so they can be safe. Children who haven't ever played in the playgrounds and parks because they have to be ten seconds away from shelter. We have faith in our leaders and in our army and we hope that you too will support us. With lots of love,June

Monday morning update

12:00 midday

The morning started off quietly, and in accordance with the Home Front Directive to stay close to shelter, we were busy cancelling today's planned interviews with the young ambassador (shinshin) candidates for next year. But then, since 9:30 am we have been running up and down the corridor to shelter with the other workers in the building under the stairwell.

It goes like this: Wail of siren, run, catch your breath while listening carefully, BOOM/Thud (of landing missile), back to your desk (all takes place in less than a minute).

One of this morning's grads fell in the center of Ashkelon, a few hundred meters from us on a building site. One Arab labourer was killed and 14 others injured, some seriously. The hospital is just a few hundred meters away from us, and the building site. We saw the smoke from the blast, from the verandah outside our 4th-floor office. Ambulance sirens and rocket-alert sirens intermingling.

[Over 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the last two days. The IAI is now also attacking Gaza, with one difference. The Hamas in Gaza are firing on us, trying to hit indiscriminate civilian targets. The IAI is trying to stop the attacks on Israel and targeting terrorists headquarters, hideouts and rocket missile launching targets as well as the underground tunnels used to illegally transport weapons. Sadly, civilians in Gaza will no doubt also be injured but Israel is NOT targeting civilians.]

There is no doubt that life in the city of Ashkelon has now been interrupted, and we are now feeling what Sderot has experienced, being under constant rocket attack for the last 8 years. We do not feel safe, and we pray for the safety of those who are taking action to protect us.

As I started to write this I heard yet another rocket-alert siren, now reports are coming in of a rocket hitting a public building, again just about 200 meters away from us. I'm thinking of leaving work and going home but I don't know which is safer - driving on the road or sheltering in a building with no safe place to hide.

Red Alert for Otzma

Otzma in Ashkelon!

Five Otzma-niks will be coming to live and work in Ashkelon for 3 months from January 2009. They have already spent a weekend in Ashkelon getting to know their host families. The 5 Otzma-niks were in town on 5th November to see where they will be living and to look at various volunteer options.

Otzma 2008-2009 in front of a mosaic made by Otzma-niks of previous years, Beit Canada

First stop on their visit was Ashkelon municipality. No sooner had they arrived in the building, when the Red Alert siren sounded. Ceasefire Shmeasefire, we are still experiencing the occasional rocket attack. The rocket landed in another neighborhood and luckily caused no damage, but our Otzmaniks were reminded that life in Ashkelon will be something of an adventure.

The tour of the city proceeded with stops at Netzach Yisrael community kindergarten, Beit Canada absorption center, Calanit student absorption center, Bet Tzipora, and afternoon day care facilities for children at risk. Nicole

Oriana Haddad outlines volunteer options for working with Ethiopian new immigrants at Beit Canada Absorption Center

Report from our Otzmaniks: "We are eager and excited and looking forward to being in Ashkelon! We love our host families and already love the city, can't wait to live here, visit the beach, and the marina, find our favorite felafel store, and shop at the shouk".

Alizka and Esther of Calanit student absorption center hosted our Otzmaniks for lunch and showed them the rooms where they will be staying from January 2009. The rooms have been newly renovated and furnished.

Lunch at Calanit

Meir Bouhnik of "The Ashkelon Foundation" ("Keren Ashkelon") and Mazal, Head of Bet Tzipora, show the Otzmaniks around Bet Tzipora - a joint project with Eli and Marion Wiesel

Reality Reminder ....

Shalom ! I just got back from my trip to Baltimore and the Diller -Teen exchange progam conference in San Francisco . Since I lost my camera on the way back, no pictures for now... sorry... ! This morning in Ashkelon the Red Alert sirens at the industrial area were operated 3 times, due to kassam rockets launched in our direction. At 9:30 we heard the alarm, loud and clear (one of the sirens is located on the municipality building roof, just above my head). We ran from the 4th floor which is all glass windows to the hallway of the 3rd floor. A few seconds later we heard the boom. Luckily the rocket hit a grass lawn , in one of the neighborhoods close to where we were... No casualties, no damage ! My son was on his way to the bus taking all his class mate to an overnight field trip. They rushed the students back to the building, and after a while they left as planned. He called me to say that they heard the boom very loud because the rocket fell very close to the school . We also had guests with us this morning, 6 Otzma volunteers (3 from Baltimore ) who came to visit some of the places they will be volunteering at from January. They were on their way to the municipality as the siren went. They were very calm, unlike their madricha who REALLY panicked... Things are back to normal , and we continued their visit as planned . They had a really good story for folks back home. Sigal

Life on the Gaza Border

Today Sigal and I joined a Gaza Border Region Field Tour for over 50 foreign journalists, organized by TIP - THE ISRAEL PROJECT (http://www.theisraelproject.org/). There were reporters from Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, UK, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, China, Russia, Australia, the US, Canada, and more. We visited the factory on Kibbutz Erez, where we heard about the impact of the security situation on the kibbutz members and their children and on the factory workers, (most from the kibbutz or from Sderot). The factory supplies their overseas customers on time despite the situation, but workers are under constant stress.

Chen Abrams from Kfar Aza told us how her 8 yr old son sleeps in the bed with her and her husband every night - his own bedroom faces "the direction of the threat" - she wants him near when the siren goes off. She still remembers a time when she would go shopping in Gaza, eat humous in restaurants and go to the beach there.She passed round metal missile fragments from a kassam that landed on her neighbors house.

We stopped at Nahal Oz and heard from Yankele Cohen, "the potato man", about living and farming within a stone's throw of the Gaza border with the constant barrage of kassams, mortar fire, and continual threat of terrorists tunneling their way through the border. At the fence leading into the kibbutz we stopped to view Gaza, less than a mile away.

Col. Nir Press (head of the Coordination & Liaison Administration) gave an impressive briefing outlining the whole situation, how frustrating it is when the Hamas bomb the crossings that service their own Gaza population; how Israeli citizens man the crossings under constant threat. It is an ongoing challenge to balance humanitarian requests against security threats.

Two women who received permits to visit hospitals in Israel turned out to be suicide bombers, luckily caught and jailed before they could murder Israeli citizens. We saw a clip of Palestinians terrorists firing missiles at Israel from Gaza residential areas, and from an active children's school.

You can read more at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2008/Israeli+reply+to+WHO+report+on+Gaza+2-Apr-2008.htm

The tour continued on to Sapir College where we heard from social workers about students and teachers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome which is not so "post" because it has been going on for 8 years, and is still ongoing.

In Sderot we were briefed by Major Chezi Deutsch of the Home Front Command. Home Front distributes material explaining what to do in emergency situations, in many different languages, and even in Thai - for the Thai workers on the kibbutzim and moshavim.

Sigal and I had to leave the tour at this point but the intrepid journalists continued on to visit the Nirlat paint factory at Nir Oz, continually hit by Palestinian terrorist mortar fire http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3554195,00.html, and then down to Kibbutz Kerem Shalom on the Egyptian border.

Thanks to Eli Ovitz, Mark Regev, Marcus Sheff, Rachel Fishman and everyone at The Israel Project.

We returned safely to Ashkelon from our trip to the Gaza border but not long afterwards we heard the siren. From our safe room we heard the "boom" - a missile fell near the Shuk in Migdal, landing ironically enough in the old Moslem cemetery. Another miracle for us - only one person was lightly injured. Missiles also fell near where we visited today.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3554195,00.html

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126517

Nicole

Grad Hits Hutzot ShoppingMall

Wed 14th May. It was almost 18:00. We were with the Diller delegation teens at a meeting in the municipality building. The Grad rocket fell on Hutzot shopping mall, about 4 km away, at peak shopping hour. The teens started to get calls from their parents. I tried to call to check on my kids but the phone lines were down. So we sent the teens home , and I flew home, to find my kids calm. The fact that there was no siren helped ...

There was no siren this time so people didn't have any warning. Two days ago there was a warning siren but the two grad missiles fell while the siren was still going, so it probably wouldn't have made much difference. This grad missile fell on the third floor of the Hutzot shopping mall where there are offices and clinics. It hit a medical clinic and 4 people, including a mother and a baby were seriously injured . There were many others injured, including children.

This is the mall on the right of the main road, as you enter Ashkelon through the main entrance, Sderot Ben Gurion. It is opposite the firestation. There was a lot of damage but luckily the grad hit a corner of the mall and not the center because the mall was crowded and it could easily have been worse.

Shocking pictures from the site of the missile attack, from "the Israel Project" :'

http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.4129617/

Monday Morning Wake-Up

What a wake up ! This morning, I got unexpected "help" waking the kids ... I made my first round of wake-up calls, no one moved, I usually give them a few more minutes and wake them up again . But... at 7:01 a loud siren was heard.

I ran upstairs. I found my 6 yr old Gily, after a week of memorial day sirens - standing smartly to attention, in her pyjamas, just like in a memorial service. I grabbed her hand, Ron joined us, and so did Shir - who usually hears nothing. We stood together under the staircase, which we think is our safe area in the house. Before the siren had finished, we heard a boom in the distance, followed by a second one that sounded closer. We hugged each other.

Anat, our municipal spokesperson, and my good friend and neighbor, called a few minutes later to tell us that one rocket fell south of the city in the National Park, the 2nd fell in the backyard of a house near Shapira community center, very near a school. Once again we were lucky. No casualties, only light damage.

Note: Over the weekend, about 25 rockets fell in the south. Some landed very near where my husband works. Jimmy Kdoshim was killed on Kibbutz Kfar Aza while working in his garden, he was a 48 yr old father of 3 who was a champion motorized parachutist. They do not have a rocket alert siren on Kfar Azza.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3541468,00.html