בס''ד

Rockets are Raining in the South

I live in Ma’agalim, home to four hundred families. Ma’agalim is an Yishvu [community], in the Southern Negev, just outside of  Netivot, half hour from Beer Sheva and nine kilometers from Gaza.

We had just finished making Havdalah, saying good-bye to Shabbat Parsha Noach for another year. Shabbat had been a nice quiet relaxing day. The first rain of the season had just fallen.

Our 4 month old puppy Patches needed to be taken out and I said that I would walk her.  Patches and I had just gotten down the street when the warning air raid siren went off.  That meant in 20 seconds a grad missile would land.

I started to run home. The puppy was scared and running as fast as her little feet could. Just as I reached my home, I saw two flashes in the sky that looked like lightning and a ball of fire flying over my backyard.

Then boom, boom! The sight is mind boggling. The booms are so loud.

The flashes were not lightning but the iron dome getting ready to take out the rocket. The iron dome is a mobile air defense system.

The boom was the iron dome doing its job and destroying the rocket before it could land.

As I write this piece, rockets have been falling for over five hours. Almost every town and city in the south has been hit. From Beer Sheva to Netivot, to Sedrot to Ashdod to Ashkelon and every little town in between has had a siren.

In Ashdod an apartment building was hit and a car is on fire. In Ashkelon a private home was hit. In Gan Yavneh a schoolyard was hit. A number of the rockets caused extensive damages to buildings.

The IDF is reporting so far twenty rockets have landed in the Southern communities. Pikud HaOref ..our Home Front command has ordered all gatherings of 500 people or more be cancelled until further notice.

People living within forty kilometers of Gaza are to stay close to shelters. School is cancelled for tomorrow [Sunday] for children living more that 7km. up to 40 km. from Gaza. 200,000 children from gan [kindergarten] and up will be home. My grandchildren go to school in Kfar Maimon [borders Gaza] and learn in fortified classrooms. They have school. Instead of fire drills, they have kassem drills. Each and every child knows what to do if the warning siren goes off.

MDA Magan David Adom is reporting three serious injuries, more than 43 people were admitted to the hospital wounded by the rockets and many people are suffering from shock.

The man injured in Ashkelon has now died.

The police have raised the alertness level to second highest in the south.

The IAF is retaliating over Gaza. I can hear the booms.

Epilogue: 8 hours later:

Two grads were sent to Beer Sheva around 3:00 a.m. and at 5:00a.m. a grad was sent to Ashkelon. There is nothing worse than being woken up during the night with an air raid siren. The booming is continuing. I just heard two very loud booms.

The drones and helicopters are out. Egypt supposedly brokers a ‘cease fire’ to start at 6:00 a.m. This was already broken. The IDF is reporting thirty-nine kassamim, mortars or grads landed in Southern Israel.

We have nothing stopping us now. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the other terrorist groups must be put out of business for once and for all.

Terrorist own video: Shooting into Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Bg5HGW8qY&feature=share

Miriam