2 years after Gaza op, fear remains

Shmulik Hadad
Sderot Media Center
02 January '11

Residents of Ashkelon, Sderot say nothing has changed since Operation Cast Lead: Qassams, mortars continue to explode in area; kindergartens and schools still unfortified. Hamas could have been crushed; unfortunately, this wasn't done,' says Ashkelon Mayor

On a clear day, Reuven Mahluf can see the Gaza Strip from his home in Ashkelon. During Operation Cast Lead he followed the activity from his balcony, hoping that the missiles hitting the southern city would turn into a distant memory at the end of the operation.

"I saw it all before my eyes, the Qassams they fired here. At the time we thought it was worth suffering all this fire in order to put an end to it," he says, disappointed. "Who would have thought that two years later a Qassam missile would explode next to a kindergarten? It's a shame, they could have ended it."



Two years after the Israeli operation in Gaza, most kindergartens and educational institutions in Ashkelon remain unfortified, while residents of the rocket-battered city feel that the military move missed its target.

"I know that he's in an unfortified kindergarten and has to cling to the wall of an old building constructed in the 1950s," says Orly Shmaltz of her three-year-old son.

Occasionally, she hears a rocket alert from the city's southern industrial zone or from nearby communities, and doesn't know what to do as her house isn't fortified either.

(Read full "2 years after Gaza op, fear remains")

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