Close to 14 Qassam missiles were fired upon Sderot and the Negev on Thursday night and Friday morning, November 14-15. On Friday, Sderot residents woke up to the red alert siren, Tzeva Adom, at 8:30 in the morning, followed by several more siren alerts and rocket explosions that vibrated throughout the city.
One Qassam missile hit an electricity pole, across from a home in Sderot. Several people went into shock, including a high school girl who experienced trauma. One woman was injured in Sha’ar Hanegev kibbutz, by Qassam shrapnel from a rocket that landed in the kibbutz. The Palestinian terror group, Hamas, claimed responsibility for the firing of the missiles on their website.
The evening before, Sderot residents had the opportunity to be part of a very special event, one that gave Sderot youth an opportunity to express their feelings of fear, frustration and anger in living under the constant Palestinian missile attacks through writing.
Sderot Media Center initiated a Creative Writing Contest in Sderot in which area residents of all ages devoted their creative energies into authoring poetry, songs, and short stories of life under Qassam missile terror.
On Thursday evening, November 14, the winning participants of the contest were awarded prizes for their work and also shared their writings with the public in an award ceremony–held at the only rocket proof theater in the Negev, the Sderot Cinema.
A small audience, which included Sderot’s recently elected mayor, David Buskila, attended the event. The audience turnout was small due to the uncertain security situation, with the renewal of Qassam missiles on Sderot and the Negev. Dr. Adrianna Katz, the head of the Sderot Trauma Center noted that she could not attend because of the reopening of the Sderot Trauma Center due to recent and future victims of Palestinian missile terror.
The evening was particularly moving, as Jonathan Abuksis, the father of Ella Abuksis, who was killed in a Qassam missile attack two years ago, spoke of his daughter and of his hopes that creative writing contests in the future would no longer include writings of death and rockets, but of flowers and life in the city of Sderot.
Although the Sderot contest participants shared their fear and frustration of life under Palestinian missiles in their writings, most participants agreed that Sderot would forever be their home.
Ten minutes after the award ceremony ended, a Palestinian missile was fired at Sderot, falling in the fields outside the city.
