Kassams and Psychiatric Care

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu Kassams and Psychiatric Care

Hamas terrorists attacked Sderot again Sunday night with a Kassam rocket that hit the porch and back yard of a home. Media reported “there were no injuries” to people inside the house, but eight years of attacks have placed 20 percent of the town’s population under mental care.

Five other rockets also exploded in the city and in Sdot Negev and Eshkol regions. No damage was reported. “Four thousand people in Sderot are under psychiatric care in some form,” according to David Bedein, an investigative journalist who also has a masters degree in social work and works in the field.

More than 70 rockets and mortars have hit Sderot and the adjacent Sha'ar HaNegev area since the end of Operation Cast Lead, which the Olmert administration declared returned peace and quiet to southern Israel. More than thirty others have exploded in other areas, including Ashkelon.

“People are suffering from anxiety” from the attacks, Bedein said. Noting that the media have downplayed rocket attacks that “cause no injuries or damage,” Bedein explained, “It is difficult to report miracles.”

He noted that when covering the Gulf War in 1991 for CNN radio, his superiors turned down a headline story on a Scud rocket that destroyed a street and leveled homes.

“CNN asked how many people were killed, and they were not interested when I said there were no fatalities,” Bedein told Israel National News.

Students in Ashkelon regarded the Sabbath morning attack on their school as a miracle and recited Psalms Sunday morning.

“I don’t want to think what would have happened if the rocket hit in the middle of the week when pupils were in school,” said Amit school principal Yitzchak Abrijel. “It was a miracle that it happened on the Sabbath when the school is closed.”

The students arrived at the heavily damaged school Sunday morning, went on a field trip after reciting Psalms and completed their day at the Amit youth village in Petach Tikva.

Parents at most schools in the port city announced their children will stay home on Monday because of the lack of security.

The rocket that hit the school on the Sabbath was more powerful than previous models and blasted through heavy fortification designed to protect from students and teachers from injuries.

Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Cabinet Sunday morning that Israel will show Hamas a military response that will force a halt to the attacks. However, an international donors' conference in Cairo and the presence of international leaders in the region may place diplomatic obstacles to retaliation, unless a rocket causes serious injuries.