Is This Really Happening?

I read in the news yesterday where school officials in Sderot (a small town next to Gaza) found where a rocket had damaged a school during the Passover break.  Perhaps you knew, or perhaps you didn't, that while President Obama was visiting Israel, terrorists in Gaza fired four rockets at Israel, two landing in Gaza, and two landing in Israel.  It was initially thought that only one had done damage, and the other one was yet to be found.  What a scary thing to come back to when you're getting a school ready for kids to return. 

I really thought this was what I was going to blog about.  Then, I read that there were more rockets shot into Israel yesterday in protest of a prisoner who had died in an Israeli prison from cancer.  But, again, I really thought that was all I was going to blog about.

Then, as I was in bed getting ready to go to sleep, I read that Israel had sent planes into Gaza to bomb some open areas around cities as a warning against continued rocket attack.  Needless to say, I slept uneasy last night.  But, I naively thought, that was it.

Just now, as I'm getting ready to start my day, an alert from a Hebrew news agency pops up on my phone, and I can't believe what I've read.  Surely, since my Hebrew is still shaky, I read it wrong.  No.  More rockets fired on Sderot 20 minutes ago.  My stomach fell to the floor as I read this.  Dealing with a war that was a surprise was a piece of cake - you just have to survive and the adrenaline pushes you along.  Now, I'm sitting here, processing all the steps leading up to probably more rocket attacks and probably another war, and I'm paralyzed with fear.  And now, my brain is working overtime, reminding my body that there could be sirens, I could have to run, and I guess just trying keep me from being utterly surprised.

I hear helicopters flying over Be'er Sheva, but I'm not sure if it's any connection to what is going on.  There are lots of military bases around BS, so it could just be routine.  It does, however, remind me of where I am and what possibly is next. 

Maybe things will just calm down, and this was just a little skirmish between two cranky kids, but something tells me it's not.  I hope to hell I'm wrong.