‘We woke up to a rocket in our pool’ – Sderot resident recounts late night attack

“There is [physical] damage to our home, but the mental damage is much worse,” says Sderot mother of two young children.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A resident of the southern Israel town of Sderot tearfully spoke to Hebrew-language news about her home being damaged by rockets launched from Gaza in the early hours of Wednesday morning, along with the mental burden of living in the line of fire.

As IDF troops withdrew from Jenin late Tuesday evening, Gaza-based terror groups fired rockets at nearby Israeli civilian communities in the Negev desert.

“At about 1:40 a.m. last night, we heard loud booms,” a shaken Neta Ohayon told Channel 12 News. Although hearing the sound of rocket interceptions is a regular occurrence for her family, “the last boom was louder than usual.”

On Wednesday morning, Ohayon noticed that her back patio was covered in debris, to which her husband responded that there must have been a rocket interception.

“We opened the shutters, looked out the window, and discovered a Qassam rocket in the pool,” she recounted.

Ohayon noted that although an air raid siren had sounded, with just fifteen seconds to scramble to their bomb shelter, her family had not made it to the safe room in time. Had the rocket struck her home, she and her family could have been killed or seriously wounded.

She showed Channel 12 News cameras holes in her roof and ceiling that had been caused by shrapnel from the falling rocket, presumably after it had been intercepted by the Iron Dome.

While the Iron Dome does neutralize the rockets, pieces of shrapnel can still measure several feet and cause serious damages or harm to human life.

“There is [physical] damage to our home, but the mental damage is much worse,” said a clearly emotional Ohayon. “Everything can be fixed and repaired, it’s not a big deal, but the mind suffers every time and that’s the hardest part.”

Ohayon said she was concerned about the impact on her children.

“My kids saw the police in the morning, because they came to document the scene and [remove the rocket and shrapnel.] I told my kids not to worry about it, but they asked, ‘Mom, why are you crying?’ I said I don’t feel well.

“You can’t cry continuously from six in the morning until eight, without telling your child what’s really going on. It’s hard.”