Today we will share the story of Roman from Ashdod but first few things:
The name of the man who was murdered by Hamas yesterday is Dror Hanin 37, left behind wife and 3 children. He was a volunteer in Judea and Samaria firefighters deparment. He died while handing out food packages to soldiers in the border.
photo from Ynet website.
Today as I am writing this post no rockets fired at Sderot, yet rest of Israel is still under fire.
Here is a picture taken by Sivan Basa in a kindergarden in Hod Hasharon
Hamas fires indiscriminatley at civilians. They dont care who will be hit.
Now here is the story of a friend from Ashdod, Roman Sohotinski (23)
Im Roman, 23 from Ashdod. I am a student of Social Science at Tel-Aviv University.
I work in public relations and marketing and active in the nightlife scene.
The first time I have experienced the reality of rockets was in december 2008, few months after graduating from high-school. The first time a rocket fell in Ashdod I wasn't really worried about it. But the next time rocket was fired at Ashdod only a short while later a Grad-Rocket exploded close to my house. I remember the big explosion, everything is shaking around me like its going to crash down. As a young man of 18 who never been under fire or living in terror I was really afraid. More afraid for my family than myself. Its hard to describe this feeling of fear. Mostly I remember my heart racing and pounding hard in my chest, and thinking about the safety of my family.
Now in this escalation in 2014 the Iron Dome helps me feel more safe, since its proved its ability to intercept most of the rockets. Other than that, It is still stressful and scary to be caught outside when rockets are being fired.
As for being a student, I finished my finals in TAU. As for work, since I work at PR, Marketing mostly in the nightlife scene, and there is escalation and rockets being fired people don't go out and I find myself without work. Ashdod looks like a ghost-town, people are afraid to go out, and seeing my city this way is very depressing.
I would like to live in a different security situation, where Hamas is not a terrorist organization anymore, without means and intent to hurt us.
I want to tell you all that its not enough dealing with the existing terrorists. There must be an intervention in the education of children in Gaza that encourage them to choose terrorism and violence. The brainwash they are being put through is horrible! From an early age they are taught to hate Jews and fight against Israel. Terror organizations lie to them as part of their propaganda against Israel. Stoping this brainwash of children can save everyone trouble in future.
Im sad to say that just now we are announced that a man who was injured by a rocket near Sderot about 20 minutes ago just died. May he Rest in Peace.
So lets rewind a little bit. Israel is dealing with rockets being from Gaza, Lebanon-syria and now from Sinai deseret by Hamas and their fellow terror organizations in those countries. The rockets fired from Sinai, Egypt hit eilat late at night last night after it was announced that Israeli security cabinet will vote early in the morning on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and to further negotiate a new agreement (after the last agreement in 2012 was broken by Hamas).
In 09:00 Israel declared ceasefire all IDF missions were paused, even Iron Dome was taken away from Sderot (which is probably why that man was hit and killed).
Hamas didn't agree to the ceasefire and kept shooting dozens of rockets to Israel.
After few hours Israel resumed "Protective Edge" operation to thwart Hamas.
Many people are worried about a ceasfire with Hamas, because there is the fear that Hamas will act the same way it acted in the past. They will make an "agreement" or "ceasefire". After few months they resume their rocket launching at southen Israel and sderot in particular.
Most of the global media don't care about people being fired like sitting ducks.
And Israel usually had a containment policy in which most rockets were not retaliated.
We live this life for 13 years, we want this to stop. As long as Hamas abilities are not hurt, they dont change their policy and agenda, they are still posing a threat to us, civilians in Israel.
If Hamas will lay down their arms, stop with their "Jihad" and change their policies about Jews and Israel than we can finally be at peace, we can finally be at rest, we can finally feel secure.
But until that happens, that cycle of rockets for years, operation, agreement, rockets for years.. will just keep going.
So in the last 2 days we had large readers coming from all over the world.
I checked it out and I found out that the Israeli Minstry of Foreign Affairs posted a link in their facebook page to my blog, so its great news!
I read some of the comments there and some claimed we have problem with muslims or arabs which is not true at all. As I said in this blog and as I said in interviews, the problem is only with the terrorist organizations mainly Hamas who violate human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel does all that it can to protect the lives of civilians in Israel and in Gaza, Jewish, Muslim, Christians and all other faiths.
Eli Levin took a picture in a shelter in Jerusalem where both Jews and muslims took shelter from the rockets.
Meanwhile Hamas uses and encourage civilians to act as human shields for their houses, weapon storage rooms and more.
Here is their speaker:
Also, rockets by Hamas have hit villages in the palestinian authority, and yesterday they hit the power lines from Israel that give electricity to 70,000 palestinians. Hamas don't care about muslims or arabs, only about violence. Israel on the other hand protect everyone, be it Jew, Arab, or any other.
SO SHARE THE TRUTH! STOP HAMAS!
Dov Trachtman - The Man in Fort
I was very busy in the last few days. Interviews, talking with reporters and running to shelter during the alarms.
As you may have heard rockets are fired from lebanon aswell to Israel by now. There are people who got hurt. An american tourist died from panic attack in Jerusalem (Just show that damage can be done not just by hitting). I will share with you mroe later.
Here is my friend Ariel personal story:
Hello, my name is Ariel Zharskey, i'm 23 years old living in Sderot.
I'm a student of second year at the faculty of Stomatology, served the IDF for 3 years.
My first personal "meeting" with the rockets fired from Gaza strip happened back in 2002 when I first experienced a rocket exploding next to my house. It was about 15 meters from my home, while I sat in front of my computer, I heard a massive explosion, my window just exploded,the entire glass fell on my bed.
Back in those days, the early years of rockets being fired at Sderot we didnt have Code Red alarm.
As time got by and many people were injured badly from this unstoppable "rain" of rockets, the Israel Defense Force and the city hall understood it's about time to set an alarm.
The decision was made shortly after my experience. When the explosion occured my mother was pregnant with my baby sister. She was at home while it happend, and also my 8 year old sister was sitting in her room.
When the rocket hit a bus 15 meters from my house, the explosion was unbelievably massive, it shook the entire building and broke every single glass pointing the place where the rocket hit.
Small pieces of the rocket flew into the house breaking everything on its way, the bus went on fire.
While I'm completely in shock, I'm trying to get myself up, go check my mother and sister
the air is full with smoke, as a result of the explosion, i'm running to check my family.
Good, they're fine, not a scratch, the street is filled with curious people checking what's going on.
After a while, the police and firefighters arrived, fortunately there were no people on the street when the rocket hit.
The bus was completely burned, the firefighters managed to calm the fire.
Couple of days ago I experienced something scary as well, while rockets were fired from Gaza, the "Iron Dome" was activated and neutralize the rockets within air.
Two loud "booms" were heard after a while, 1-2 minutes later it started "raining" little small pieces of metal on the roof of our house and the yard, when the biggest piece was about 1 meter size.
Without the Code Red and the Iron Dome this time It could have ended very differently.
This is our reality, the reality of Sderot, since 2001.
(The photos were taken by Ariel in his house couple of days ago. Do not use without crediting him and linking to this blog)
so this is hit, during the night a rocket was fired and hit haifa.
Around the time of the shooting at Haifa (3 AM give or take) I woke up. I dont know why, maybe it was the sound of the launch (the long range missiles makes so much noise and super sonic explosions) so it took me almost 1.5 hours to fall to sleep than I woke up twice confused as hell running to shelter because rockets were fired at Sderot and Code Red alarm woke me up.
Needless to say you feel so confused and helpless during this time, you start waking you parents by calling "Code Red" and you just not sure what the point of all of this? running to shelter during the night? and if the alarm wouldnt wake me up? but then your mind, rational mind answers this doubts "Its never worth the risk. You woke up, it gives you better chances of surviving this, dont be lazy".
So yeah, NOT BEING LAZY, I run to shelter stay for few minutes go back.
Now as I said this night it happened "only" twice.
In the past we didnt have shelter at all, and we either didnt sleep at night or woke up 10 or more times to wait for our fate.. literally. So I hope you know what does it mean to be in the most fortified city in the world and understanding it still doesnt mean you are really safe.
Blessings and prayers for all the people injured by Hamas' aggression and terror.
Today I was interviewed and later joined foreign journalists and news reporters who visited my city, Sderot.
I was invited by the man who lead this tour, Noam Bedein, a journalist and the head of Sderot Media Center.
So in 10 AM we met with the journalists near the operation centers of Sderot.
Noam gave a briefing about Sderot and the security situation.
After the briefing me and other residents who speak in foreign languages were interviewed by this journalists.
After that, Knesset Member Shuli Mualem who visited Sderot was interviewed by the journalists.
Than we visited the rockets museum in the police stations. Hundreds of rockets that have hit Sderot.
The journalists took photos and asked some more questions.
In 11 AM we went to "Denver" the paint factory that EXPLODED 2 weeks ago in saturday evening.
The stench of the chemicals that burned is still really strong and bad even after all this time and the cleaning going on. The factory owner Baruch Kogan was interviewed by the journalists. in about 11:20 AM we so Iron Dome intercepts rockets in the air, then followed by Code Red alarm. The journalists were stressed and we all ran to a more safe place behind the factory. It is very uneasy and scary experience.
A video of us running to safety can be viewed here: http://www.hnn.co.il/gallery26681.html
We were on our way to the next stop when the journalists heared in the microphone a young girl talk about the rockets in her town minutes earlier (in English).
After that we went to the worlds first shelterd playground for young children.
The Journalists talked with parents and children, heard about the project by a representative.
After that we want to a hill that you can see gaza from and how close it is to Sderot.
The journalists heard mayor of Sderot Mr. Alon Davidi speak about Sderot, the rocket threat and the need to stop terror of hamas. The journalists asked him questions and took photos of gaza.
Before the end of the tour Mr. Noam Bedein Gave more information about Sderot's history, demography and the mixture of different cultures in the city. The journalists were especially surprised to hear that in Sderot many arabs from Gaza and "palestinian territories" decided to live. Also Sderot is home now of over 1000 war refugees from Sudan.
I can say that it was very interesting day, both for me, and the journalists and reporters, a little bit scary but overall important experience.
NOTE: DO NOT USE OR SHARE THIS PHOTOS OR VIDEO WITHOUT CREDITING AND LINKING TO THIS BLOG.
Have a peaceful day as possible
Dov Trachtman - The Man in Fort
There's an article I wanted to post in a big american website prior to operation "Protective Edge" but I will post it here instead. please, share it so the whole world will know how it's like living for 13 years with the threat of rockets killing you and everyone you love is daily and around the clock.
But first, here some background music that will help you understand what is Hamas and what they really stand for.
(Sabaton - In the name of God)
First of all few statistics
Terror
organization from Gaza started firing rockets on civilian population
since 2001.
In 2005 Israel disconnected and
gave lands to Gaza for peace. Since than over 20,000 rockets
where
fired to Israel.
Since
operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 over 400 (MiF note: the number is outdated since I wrote this) rockets were fired to
Israel.
Most
of them between June-July 2014 as part of escalation initiated by the
worldly known terrorist organization Hamas that kidnapped 3
teenagers and murdered them.
#1
It affects
the way you dress
Say
this is summer the temperature is 35-40 celcius (95-105 farenhait).You will probably
where shorts, sandals and flip-flops, right?
If you need to throw the trash
you wouldn't give it much thought just wear
something
because its only few seconds.
Well
in the reality of living under the terror of rockets you give it some
serious thought.
Ideally
you have 15 seconds to find shelters when you hear the code red alarm goes on. In
most cases its less than that like 5 seconds (sometimes the alarm starts after the explosion of the hit) so you probably choose shoes
like running shoes or even boots to throw to trash not to mention all
your other daily activities even in the hot days of summer. Because
you don't want to trip, twist your ankle or something that will delay
from getting in to safe zone.
And
sometimes you don't have the time so what you can do is just lay on
the ground and cover your head with your hands.
But
shreds from the rocket or pieces of glass, stone and other objects
can hit you in your back, legs and hands.
So
personally I usually still prefer wearing jeans because of the strong
fabric and boots because it keeps the leg safer and its harder to
twist ankle when you run because it gives some support. (jeans is actually more psychological than practical to be fully honest).
Wait
I didnt finish with this point. So atleast in your house you can be
in your tighty walter whities right? Well not exactly. You see, the
values of community and helping each other are strong in my city
espcially in times of need. So many houses keep their doors open from
early morning to the late night hours. Some even keep them almost
24/7 open. No one really want to be the douchebag that someone was
killed because he let in for shelter when the rockets start to fall
around.
But
still in this unusual scenario you dont want to look like you neglect yourself. So even in the late night
hours people think about what to wear.
#2
Bathing
and Showering are not relaxing
So
this reality is very stressful and you just want to take few minutes
to relax. Maybe take a soothing bath or cleaning yourself up from
the blood, sweat and tears of the day because Hamas arranged a
private flight for the grim reaper to pay our city a visit.
The
thing is, it becomes scary of its own. You see, most bathrooms are
not made to endure under the hits of rockets or the shock waves of the hit.
Take into account that in many bathroom there are mirrors, glass and
other dangerously fragile that can become sharp items and you got
yourself a nice death trap. It's Jigsaw's wet dream scenario.
So
some people try to postpone it, make a project out of it with someone
waiting outside the door to call you when the “code red” alarm
and sirens are on so you could cover yourself with towel so you would
not run butt-naked to a safety room or shelter or the building stairs
room. And as we mentioned, in times like this people will probably
get inside your house to take cover and its makes the situation a lot
more uncomfortable if you are naked and face filled with shampoo.
Same
thing is with toilets. You really dont want to get caught with your
pants down so to speak.
You
see, you need to appreciate this things. For millions of people in
Israel this is a terrifying moments which they need to decide what
they prefer. They're health and hygene or life.
3#
Long-Distance
EVERYTHING
I
guess everyone here is familiar with the term long-distance
relationships.
What
if everything in your life become long-distance and not by choice.
You
see all this years living in a life looking like a bad sci-fi/action
movie (Because seriously life like this seems totally unreal) the way
your life looks like change drastically you see when you are a kid or
teenager living here your parents probably would not want you or let
you go out. Sometimes the government decides everyone should stay in
shelters to not take any risks. So you keep in touch with your
friends through phone calls, texting, facebook. You get the point.
So
sometimes you hardly go to school, sometimes they able to arrange
buses and classes in other cities we can atleast study there. So
sometimes you can spends weeks in shelter or at home or weeks going
back and forth to different cities to study and taking exams.
There
was also an initiative to open classes through internet so we can
watch videos, lectures or download notes so we won't miss much
material from the curriculum.
Also
did I mention that many people skipped town for days, weeks, forever
just to take a break from this life? So yeah there are people you
hardly see and people you will hardly see in the future.
#4
Sleep
is for the weak.. or the sane
The
problem with living in constant fear for your life is that it fucks
you up.
People develop problems like
PTSD, kids lose control of their bladder even in older ages
and
anyway the Hamas enjoying launching rockets even late at night so its
kind of hard to sleep when you hear and feel the explosions and the
sirens would not stop because suddenly they decided to escalate. So
yeah your sleep cycle gets crazy, biological clock is not synch to
normal people life.
Studies
of sleep deprivation show the damages caused by it. Mental problems,
physical problems. Basically this is a constant torture we are put
through by terror organization. This torture is killing people even
if they dont hit you directly with their rockets. So thumbs up Hamas
you get the reward of being inhumane douchebags who get kicks of
torturing civilians and children for kicks.
#5
Counter-Equipment
makes normal things look sci-fi
So
its starts with that most houses in my city got special operations
room standard beeper which alerts if there are rockets going to fall
near by with sometimes messages of how much and when.
Add
to that the speakers for the alert “code red” everywhere around
so you will have few seconds to pray and take cover before it hits.
Bomb
shelters were laid down around the city, most bus station have small
shelters now to.
To
make it less terrifying artist from abroad and from Israel tried to
decorate them and paint them to look less intimidating ugly and weird
sci-fi.
Schools have arches and exo-skeleton like metal and bocks layers which make
them look monstrous and gave children nightmares at first.
Also
we have the world's first sheltered play-ground for kids. So parents
wouldnt have to overthink if they can take them to play outside with
friends and if its safe for them and if they wouldnt be hurt.
Seriously
if you think this is sane-normal for a western country to have cities
in this situation something is wrong with you.
#6
PTSD
and Agoraphobia makes your brain feel trapped in a bad action movie
in loop
So
years under the threats of being killed by rockets, day and night
screws your brain you suffer from PTSD and maybe Agoraphobia
variations.
Everytime
you step out of the door be it for work, school, a walk, a ride you
start thinking stuff "where is the closest shelter"? "Where I wont be
alone in case of trouble"? "What is the best way to run"? Even moral
questions start to pop up. Lets say you are in a car with your two
small kids. And the alarm goes on and you have only few seconds to
choose which one are you going to get out of the car for safety. How
can you choose? How do you deal with this? Choosing life of one over
another. And lets say its not your kids just you see few kids alone
on the street how can you handle helping them all to get into safety?
Its insane!
Also
besides over thinking on what to do and how to deal with stuff (and
in many times people had to deal with this situations and moral
questions) you have to deal with your body.
Feeling
like your heart is going to explode because its racing and you feel every
pound like a punch in the chest, feeling the fear like this is your
last day or how they going to tell your family you are dead or how
could you deal with life if you lose both your legs or you just freeze
in spot.
Or
putting on loud music in your earphones so you try to distract
yourself from the situations, disassociate yourself and not thinking
about and ignoring from the alarms and explosions.
Yeah
thats pretty much my highschool memories of going to and back from
school.
This pretty much a small summary of things that I think most people never thought of about living under the constant fire of rockets. please share the truth. STOP HAMAS!
