Israel-Hamas War: Near Gaza, in ghost Israeli town, a few remain: ‘This is home, how to leave?’

This is the small town of Sderot, less than 2 km from the Gaza strip at its nearest point. It was among the worst-hit in the Hamas attack on October 7. More than a week later, it wears the look of a ghost town, with most of its 30,000-strong population having fled to safer areas.

About 73 km south of Tel Aviv, the elegantly laid out streets of Sderot, with palm trees and pink and white flower beds lining the roads, look abandoned. Silence drapes the city punctuated only by air raid sirens and rocket attacks.

It will be 10 days tomorrow but the brutal reminders are still very visible.

On one of the streets, called Aarav David Buzaglo, is a grey house with bullet marks on the walls and shattered glass windows. Outside the house, there are four vehicles, also riddled with bullet marks, shattered windows and punctured tyres. One vehicle has suffered the impact of rockets, a black car is damaged almost beyond recognition. A white car has shattered windows, with two baby car seats in the rear, one with a Barbie picture on it.

A few hundred metres away, an area has been blockaded. Earthmovers are at work, clearing the rubble of what used to be a local police station. The Hamas had taken over the police station and captured hostages and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had to bomb the building.

Nearby, there are signs of what used to be a normal town – posters of “I Love Sderot”, and happy pictures of residents.

At the edge of the town, checkpoints have been set up by IDF personnel who monitor every vehicle that passes through.

The road, which divides the town from the border, is also littered with remnants of the attacks. On a roadside corner is a baby stroller, a polka-dotted pink towel and two jackets are strewn on the ground. Next to these are hundreds of empty bullet shells.

Across the road is a silver-coloured Honda CRV, which had likely swerved suddenly, with bullet-riddled windows and blood-stained seats.

With the IDF taking over the area along the border, tanks and armoured vehicles can be seen all along the main road. Across the road, on the grassy plains and round hills where cotton, wheat and barley are grown, they have deployed tanks and artillery guns facing Gaza.

The silence is broken by an air raid siren, and rockets can be seen being fired from Gaza. An explosion occurs – the rocket has been intercepted. Minutes later, there is the booming of Israeli artillery guns.

For the residents, it is a matter of habit – they have 15 to 30 seconds to rush to a shelter. There are concrete shelters at bus stops, and strongrooms in homes. If one lives in Sderot, so close to the Gaza border, the reaction time to get to a shelter is just 15 seconds, say some of the residents who have stayed back. “One has to be really quick, it’s very dangerous to live here,” says Waleed, who is ferrying journalists to the conflict-hit town.

A couple of old men, in their 70s, are sitting outside their homes, underneath a stilted parking lot. Both can’t speak English, but, with the help of a local guide, one of them says, “This is our home, how can we leave?”

Two young men, in their early 20s, are walking along the pavement. Asked why they haven’t left, one of them says, “We have a grandmother to take care of and she doesn’t want to leave, so we are here helping her”.

Israeli armoured vehicles near the Gaza border, Sunday. (AP)

According to officials, at least 75 rockets have hit the town over the last nine days. The Israeli administration is supporting the families to get out of Sderot.

Brigadier General Yoram Laredo, head of the National Emergency Management Authority which coordinates housing for those displaced by the war, said at a briefing Sunday that residents from Sderot are being funded for hotel stays in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Eilat for a week, renewable by military decision. The Israeli government has allocated funds for relocating and aiding the evacuees.

Even as about 80 to 90 per cent of the population are estimated to have left the town, Sderot Deputy Mayor Elad Kalimi told the Israeli media: “We, the residents here, don’t give up, and we won’t let our government and our army stop in the middle.” Even if there is pressure from the world to reach a ceasefire, “we can’t live like that”, Kalimi said.

For now, only municipal employees and emergency workers are seen on the streets. With shops and supermarkets closed, the local administration is going door to door, meeting the needs of those who have stayed back.

Meanwhile, rocket attacks were heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Monday, and Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, had to stop proceedings as members had to run to the shelters. The IDF also conducted strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to Palestinian authorities, the death toll in Gaza touched 2,750 on Monday, with 9,700 injured. In Israel, the toll has crossed 1,300, and the IDF said they have identified 199 people who have been taken hostage in Gaza.