Despite Israel’s military bombing Gaza, rocket attacks against Israel continue. At the same time, residents of the city of Sderot testify to an overloaded alarm system that makes it difficult to know when to seek shelter.
– We need to feel that we trust the alarms, but often the sirens don’t work, says ambulance paramedic Arieh Levi, to TV4 Nyheterna.
In the city of Sderot, the traces of Hamas’s surprise attack have begun to be cleared. The police station that was besieged and where 10 police officers were killed is to be removed, before people may one day be able to return to their homes. Only a few inhabitants remain, many of them old and sick.
– Our goal now is to provide care to those who cannot get out of their homes, many elderly. They cannot get out of the houses but they need medical attention. Our doctor goes to their home and treats when we have an address, says Arieh Levi, ambulance paramedic.
When TV4 Nyheterna is interviewing the ambulance paramedic, suddenly a big bang is heard and Arieh looks down at his phone for notifications about a potential air attack.
– There was no alarm. I think it was an outgoing rocket.
– Now I got the alert. Come on!
Uncertainty about air strikes
The uncertainty surrounding the airstrikes is ever-present for the few who remain in the city. At the same time as the sirens wail, the sky is streaked by the rockets from Gaza. Then you have seconds to take shelter in one of all the shelters that are deployed. These very rockets were deflected by Israel’s air defense system, Iron Dome, but earlier in the day one person was injured here and several buildings were hit.
– We need to feel that we trust the alarms, but often the sirens don’t work. Especially now because of all the network issues throughout the area. There are big problems, it may happen that we hear a real explosion but that there is no siren before.
– So we come to the people. People don’t have to come out to us during a flight alert. We don’t want them to be in danger, we don’t want them to leave their houses.
Everyone we meet believes that the current war has only just begun but for Arieh Levi there is only one way out.
– I think that 98 percent of the people in Gaza want peace. Go to work and feed your children. I know many people there, I have friends in Gaza. I know how they feel. Nobody wants Hamas.
– Hamas is a terrorist organization, we need to destroy them like other terrorist organizations.