Natalie M., a young mother of a three-year-old boy, Shlomi, is not used to being away from her home, family and friends. Now she is also separated from her husband, as she chose to flee the Israeli town of Sderot and take her child with her.
The Israeli Ministry of Defence coordinated with the Jerusalem Municipality and other bodies to provide hotel rooms and other options for people who wanted to escape Sderot, which has lately shouldered the brunt of the Palestinian militants’ rocket fire into southern Israel.
Natalie ended up in a Jerusalem-area hotel, where she sits and tries to pass the time. She talks, balancing Shlomi on her lap, bouncing him up and down when he gets restless.
“We suffered rocket fire for the last six years, but now it seems worse than ever. So I finally decided to leave. I prefer to move and protect my child, rather than have an accident occur.
“Yesterday, the kindergarten teacher called. I told her I am not going to send Shlomi to school. I am scared. But it is hard for him outside of the school environment and framework. He gets bored, and he needs to be more social. In Sderot, we don't leave the house, just stay indoors. What can I do, though?
“I was there when [the rockets] landed, I heard them whistle overhead. Those incidents have scared me, and I’m worried about my child.
“My friends tell me about their kids wetting their beds, being scared, not doing well in school. You invest so much in your child and then you think it can all be ruined. Whenever the alarm goes off, to warn about an incoming rocket, the children start to scream.
“My husband and I have found an apartment in Ashkelon, along the coast, and will soon move out of our Sderot home for good.
“My husband continues to go to work every day, and therefore stayed, for the meantime, in Sderot.
“I worry about him all the time. But he made a decision to stay. Nonetheless, he is very stressed out. Believe me, everyone who could, left. And people should go - it's not easy to get up and leave, but it is better than staying.
“Unless people were afraid to loose their jobs or had nowhere to go - they left. The old people are refusing to go anywhere, because it’s too hard for them."
“Fear of losing employment can be a major reason to stay, especially as Sderot is a ‘development town’, and not a metropolitan centre.
“Employers understand the situation, but only to a point.
“I normally work in a day care centre for toddlers, but the centre has been closed since the latest escalation in violence.
“If the situation continues, I am just going to have to try and find a new job in Ashkelon. Who knows, maybe it won’t be so easy. But we can’t keep running forever. My child doesn’t know where his home is anymore.”
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
