Ariel's personal story with rockets + short update

Hey everyone.

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)

Thanks for reading,

Dov Trachtman - The Man in Fort