Anne
1st March 2008, 04:06 PM
He just phoned us, running over, to help the injured. He lives in the town of Ashkelon, which is as of this week, officially within rockets range.
Not sure how many people know this, but since Israel withdrew from the territories, the Palestinians shot several thousands of rockets into Israel from there. It used to be simple kassam rockets, because they didn't have anything better. It's why Israel was keeping a rather tight blockade around Gaza, to stop them from bringing in anything with a larger range. With the qassam, basically one town of 10,000 inhabitants was within range.
A few weeks ago, the Palestinians broke the border between Gaza and Egypt, supposedly to bring in food and medicine. Well, looks like along with those they did what the IDF said they would do and brought in an arsenal of better rockets, probably with experts who learned in Iran how to operate them (these are definitely Iranian rockets btw).
So, as of last week, Ashkelon, a town with 120,000 inhabitants has been fired on daily. Those grad missiles are a whole lot nastier, so there's a much heavier number of casualties. My BIL and his wife live there, and she's a nurse at the local hospital, so she got to treat all the injured people flowing in. The hospital itself is a target as well, so she gets to hear some pretty close ones.
My BIL is an ex major in the IDF (in combat positions). He kept talking with DH (his brother) on the phone today and yesterday, telling us how close the rockets are. Half an hour ago, he phoned to tell us a grad has landed 100 yards from where they live, and he's running over to help the injured. Haven't heard from him yet, sigh.
This is so crazy. I know some people think of Israel as this war zone, but honestly, we live a fairly normal life and this new situation is pretty unbearable for the people who live there in the south. It also means there is an increasing likelihood of a major Israeli retaliation against Gaza, who knows, maybe to the point of taking over the whole place again, yuck. Which would mean my own husband would be called in for who knows how long, sigh.
Anyway, not even sure if this is the right forum for all of this... Mods, feel free to move it if you think it isn't ;) I feel a bit too distracted to think about it right now.
Not sure how many people know this, but since Israel withdrew from the territories, the Palestinians shot several thousands of rockets into Israel from there. It used to be simple kassam rockets, because they didn't have anything better. It's why Israel was keeping a rather tight blockade around Gaza, to stop them from bringing in anything with a larger range. With the qassam, basically one town of 10,000 inhabitants was within range.
A few weeks ago, the Palestinians broke the border between Gaza and Egypt, supposedly to bring in food and medicine. Well, looks like along with those they did what the IDF said they would do and brought in an arsenal of better rockets, probably with experts who learned in Iran how to operate them (these are definitely Iranian rockets btw).
So, as of last week, Ashkelon, a town with 120,000 inhabitants has been fired on daily. Those grad missiles are a whole lot nastier, so there's a much heavier number of casualties. My BIL and his wife live there, and she's a nurse at the local hospital, so she got to treat all the injured people flowing in. The hospital itself is a target as well, so she gets to hear some pretty close ones.
My BIL is an ex major in the IDF (in combat positions). He kept talking with DH (his brother) on the phone today and yesterday, telling us how close the rockets are. Half an hour ago, he phoned to tell us a grad has landed 100 yards from where they live, and he's running over to help the injured. Haven't heard from him yet, sigh.
This is so crazy. I know some people think of Israel as this war zone, but honestly, we live a fairly normal life and this new situation is pretty unbearable for the people who live there in the south. It also means there is an increasing likelihood of a major Israeli retaliation against Gaza, who knows, maybe to the point of taking over the whole place again, yuck. Which would mean my own husband would be called in for who knows how long, sigh.
Anyway, not even sure if this is the right forum for all of this... Mods, feel free to move it if you think it isn't ;) I feel a bit too distracted to think about it right now.