Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The city of Sderot, adjacent to Gaza, had schools reopen on Sunday, five months after Hamas gunmen roamed the streets during the attack on Israel, which prompted the mass evacuation of residents.
Being just a few kilometers away, the sounds of gunfire could be heard from the direction of Gaza, as education officials stated thousands of children are set to return this week to Sderot schools after Israel's military said it was safe for them to do so.
"Very, very scary, but the children are strong and practiced. There is also security here, we're being secured, soldiers, and it will be okay," said Eti Irfan, one of the parents outside an elementary school in town.
The number of students returning to school and kindergarten in the city “was a surprise, we thought it would be lower,” said Mayor Alon Davidi, speaking at an informal press conference outside an elementary school in the city alongside Education Minister Yoav Kisch and other officials.
The 7th of October had Sderot as one of many locations turned into a combat zone, having terrorists passing through the city in armed vehicles, and pickup trucks, rampaging through the streets, killing at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers.
The terrorists also abducted 253 people from across the area and took them to Gaza as hostages, during the war which was initiated on the 7th of October, came under a barrage of thousands of rockets fired across Israel.
Sderot has been a cross-over victim of rocket attacks from Gaza for the past two decades and since the October 7 onslaught, rockets continued to rain down in the weeks and months with areas close to the Palestinian enclave, and also border areas have borne the attacks from Gaza.
The response from Israel to the attack was with a military campaign to topple the Hamas regime in the Palestinian enclave and free the hostages.
Miri Asulin, a teacher whose three children have returned to school in the city, told the Kan public broadcaster Sunday that she had “mixed feelings, and if it were up to me I would not return.”, But, was also quoted saying she felt a sense of duty because “my students are waiting.”
The local municipality held crucial sessions last week for staff before the reopening of the schools that included its psychological services, teacher soldiers from the army’s education corps, and exercises with security forces.
Dozens of people were evacuated from Gaza since the inception of the war, and many more had to evacuate as the Hezbollah terror group also started attacking the other side from the Lebanon border.
Israel has forever declared to put an end to Hamas and as a result, launched the attack on the 7th of October, which has also contributed to the taking of more than dozens of Palestinian lives.
Source Credit: The Times of Israel
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