While some may call it electioneering, at least Kadima leader Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is calling for a military strike in retaliation for every rocket launched into southern Israel.

While Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s ceasefire officially lives on, the scenario for southern residents is somewhat different, with the IDF documenting 215 rockets in four weeks.

In Sderot’s Merkaz HaChosen, which deals with the “lightly injured” or more frequently called the “hysteria victims”, officials report business has returned to full operation. Residents with sweats, increased heartbeats, nausea, hysteria, sleeplessness, trembling and panic attacks are some of the signs and symptoms experiences by victims.

The ceasefire in recent weeks can best be sized up by the 65 Kassam rockets, 7 Katyusha rockets, and 20 mortar shells in one 48 hour period. From Barak, the major responses were on the level of motzei Shabbos, when the air force proudly announced a rocket launcher was hit. During the last four weeks, not a single day passed with a rocket or mortar shell, totaling 215 Kassam rockets and 129 mortar shells.

One resident described his Friday night as follows. “We began to make kiddush and the siren went off. We began to eat and another siren. I began to swallow my food and another attack. We decided to remain around the Shabbos table. What else can you do? Where can we run? We do not have a fortified room.” This was the Shabbos meal for one Kfar Aza resident. 

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)