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| Alarm: Ashkelon, a city with 26,000 schoolchildren, is working on ways to guard citizens against rockets. Ariel Schalit/AP |
Israelis bolster new front line with Gaza
Ashkelon, an Israeli city 11 miles north of Gaza, has become a new target for Palestinian rocket fire.
from the March 13, 2008 edition
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Mr. Olmert's grin-and-bear-it message didn't go over well with many, who had hoped he would bring a more concrete solution.
"If we knew it were a month of living in shelters, like during what they did up north during the Lebanon war, it would be fine," says Marcus. "But to let it go on like this for years, no country can take that strain. We hope that the army and the government will reach a solution."
In the meantime, the city is doing what it can. One problem was that when the "Red Alert" alarms go off, warning of an incoming missile, most people couldn't hear the alarms, as there were only 18 for a city of 120,000 people. Last week, the government decided they should use the much louder, wailing air raid sirens, but some officials here are concerned that these much more disruptive alarms will sow panic and increase the feeling that Ashkelon has become a war zone.
But for Mazal Levy, the city's chief social worker, it sometimes feels as if it is. Since the end of February, there have been 15 "serious hits" here, causing damage or light injuries, and that means that Ms. Levy constantly needs to have someone on duty to help treat people for shock and related problems.
"It's a new situation and a new threat. It took some time to realize that it was here, that it was real. I personally haven't felt anything like this since the Gulf War, which was in 1991," Levy says. She grew concerned when her 14-year-old daughter, upset by the attacks, went to live in their basement. "First of all we're citizens, people, and parents, and we all have our own worries – like whether our kids are safe every time a missile falls."
Levy is part of a project to set up a local help center in each neighborhood of the city, where members of the community can get training to help people in crisis after a missile attack. "It's time for the politicians to see if they can get to some understandings."
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