Forgotten World (121): Sderot
It’s time for another week of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 120 entries here.
One of the most dangerous spots on earth is somewhere of which you’ve probably never heard. Sderot is a working-class town of mainly North African immigrants in Israel located a mere kilometre from the north-east corner of Gaza. Over the past four years, it has been hit by over 6,000 Qassam rockets of improving range and explosive power – all fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza. In a gesture of solidarity, El Al (Israel’s national airline) named one of its first two Boeing 777 passenger planes “Sderot”
Amazingly only eight Sderot civilians have actually been killed. But people living there never know when the next rocket is coming and live in a state of permanent fear with as many buildings as possible having a bomb shelter and reinforced roofing. The Israeli army has installed a system called “Red Dawn” to warn of incoming rockets but the alert gives the town’s residents a mere 15-20 seconds to find shelter.
The town used to house 24,000 but that is now down to perhaps 17,000. It is the location of the Sapir College school of film and television where two young people I know are students.