GALYA LAZAR'S FIRSTHAND REPORT DATED OCT 8, 2010
On Friday October 7, everything was normal. I went to work at the daycare on the kibbutz, and then I spent Friday evening hanging out and catching up with my “adoptive” family here on the kibbutz. Then, yesterday (Saturday) morning, at around 7 a.m., I woke up to the sound of rockets, and a text from my family asking if I had also woken up from the booms. That is when I checked the news. Israel was under attack, and the Bruno Mars concert that I was supposed to go to that night was cancelled.
I live in the south, so this is not the first time that I have woken up to the sounds of Iron Dome, and not my first time running to the nearby bomb shelter. However, as the morning progressed, it became clear that this time was different. Reports started to come in of armed terrorists taking over Sderot and the surrounding kibbutzim. They were murdering civilians, taking families hostage, and kidnapping civilians and taking them back to Gaza. Once I was able to leave the bomb shelter, I packed my bags and went to go stay with my adoptive family. We kept up to date on the news, but tried not to let the children feel our worry as we watched the death toll climb to the hundreds.
Because we live in the south, we spent the day inside with the doors locked and the blinds closed; our biggest worry was that terrorists would break into our community too. On top of that worry, I also worried for my friends. I study at the Sapir Academic College in Sderot, a lot of my friends live in those communities that had been taken hostage by the armed terrorists. Throughout the day we all texted and called each other, making sure that each other were safe. I still worry that when we go back to classes, not everyone will be there.
Today, as communities near Gaza were liberated, families from those communities began arriving at the kibbutz, staying with host families that had volunteered their homes. These families arrived with nothing- their homes had been completely destroyed- so the community began collecting donations. Anything helped, especially children’s toys and clothes. Most of the men in the kibbutz community have been called to the reserves, and those who weren’t volunteered to help guard our kibbutz gates. I spent the day helping care for children whose mothers were psychologists/social workers, who had gone to help the families who had arrived at the kibbutz. Now I am home with my adoptive family. We are currently discussing whether to stay here, or to travel north to the center, and trying to understand what the safer option is.
