Rocket blast in hallway proves Sderot is not Qassam-proof

Source: Haaretz, 8-5-2007
When 66-year-old Hannah Ben Yaish of Sderot hears the alarm go off, warning that a Qassam rocket is arriving from the Gaza Strip, all she can do is sit tight and hope it misses her. She had been lucky until yesterday, when a rocket hit her home, which does not have a shelter.
The rocket pierced her shingled roof and smashed to the floor of the hallway. Luckily, she was not hurt. After the attack she had one wish - that the government fund her a shelter.
There are currently some 5,000 homes that lack shelters in Sderot and the towns, villages and Kibbutzim nearby. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged in January to reinforce these homes, at a cost which the "Israeli" Army Home Front Command estimates at just under NIS 1 billion. But the budget has not been revised to handle the reinforcement project.
The director-general of the Prime Minister`s Office, Ra`anan Dinur, promised the chairman of the Sha`ar Hanegev regional council, Alon Shuster, that the decision will come before the end of the month. Meanwhile, a senior figure at the Defense Ministry told Haaretz that the homes in Sderot must be reinforced as soon as possible.
Hannah Ben Yaish hopes that Qassam rockets, like lightning, do not strike twice. "I sit with my friends, drinking coffee and playing cards, when we hear the alarm go off. We just sit there, because there`s really nothing to do about it," she says. "We`re like sitting ducks."
Sderot`s security officer, Yehuda Ben Maman, estimates that one-fifth of Sderot`s 1,000 homes are without shelter. All the municipal engineer can do is advise the residents of such homes to seek relative safety in open areas, and head out to the street as soon as they hear the alarm go off.
The Prime Minister`s Office responded to complaints by residents and their local representatives by saying that reinforcing all the homes is a grand-scale project that takes time.
The government is now deliberating between several funding options, one of which is giving out loans to residents so they can begin building sheltered rooms.
Hannah Ben Yaish says she`ll take any offer. "I won`t leave Sderot, but I want them to build me a shelter," she said while inspecting the damage to her home.