Were you thinking that the Israeli press was making a big deal out of “shock” and “trauma” victims? I have to admit: I was. Until I read this account by an American in Sderot.
The first ‘TSEVA ADOM’ alarm went off as I was across the street from my office, borrowing a friend’s computer on the fourth floor of an apartment building. Like usual, we stepped into the corridor – the safest place in the house – and waited. 15…14…13…I had gotten to twelve when I heard the screaming. A type of scream I couldn’t recognize, half laughter, half terror, complete madness. 11…10…it fell. Maybe a block away at most. Everyone in the apartment raced outside, and it wasn’t until 30 seconds later – when I woke from my daze – that I realized the screaming hadn’t stopped. I was about to step outside to join the rest when, ‘TSEVA ADOM’. Again. 15…14…I had barely reached 13 when it crashed, shaking my entire body – half a block away.
My phone rang: it was my boss Natasha, telling me to immediately come back to the office, as the fourth floor of any building was not safe. I grabbed my roommate Jackie who had come with me for the day, curious about my work in Sderot, and together we ran back across the street, as quickly as we could – into the office. Natasha looked us over, then asked if we had heard the scream. She explained that a young mother was pushing her child in a stroller, when the first ‘tseva adom’ alarm went off. Rationally speaking, she would have had enough time to pick up her child and rush with him into a nearby basement. But instead, she toppled over the stroller, child inside, and herself fell to the ground – screaming. She did not cease until Natasha and the others who ran out of the apartment lifted her and her child, and carried her into a neighbor’s apartment. How often have you read about Sderot’s ‘anxiety victims’? What do you picture – heightened blood pressure, breathing at a faster pace? No – it is this woman’s body, convulsing, flailing. It is her inability to think or move rationally – to protect her child. She was only able to collapse, hitting the ground, as if the tremor of her beating fists would keep away the Kassam.
Natasha, Jackie, and I sat in the office – trying to keep working. That’s what you do in Sderot. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. We didn’t get through much as every few minutes we would get phone calls from hysterical parents. It was 7 o’clock, parents were still at work – their children alone at home. All I could hear was Natasha screaming, “Calm down…CALM DOWN. LISTEN TO ME, BREATHE! I WON’T TALK TO YOU UNTIL YOU BREATHE. Listen, your children are fine. No, I don’t know why they’re not picking up the phone. They probably ran downstairs. I SAID CALM DOWN.†Every few minutes another parent would call, having heard that a Kassam fell by their home – unable to reach their children.
Read it all.