ISRAEL SDEROT RETURNS WEB
Metadata
- ISRAEL SDEROT RETURNS WEB
- February 8, 2024
- Four months after the Hamas attacks on Israeli communities bordering Gaza, some of the estimated 125,000 Israelis displaced from those areas are returning to their homes. Others, however, say they still don’t feel safe and are not sure when they will go back. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Sderot. This video contains graphic images and may not be suitable for all viewers.
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: ISRAEL SDEROT RETURNS HEADLINE: Residents of Town Near Gaza Start Coming Back TEASER: But some say they still don’t feel safe PUBLISHED: Thursday, 2/8/24 at 4:50 am BYLINE: Linda Gradstein DATELINE: Sderot VIDEOGRAPHER: Ricki Rosen PRODUCER: SCRIPT EDITORS: caw, sb VIDEO SOURCES: VOA, AFP, REUTERS PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X__ RADIO _X__ TRT: 3:18 VID APPROVED BY: WPM TYPE: TV/R EDITOR NOTES: Email edits to lindagradstein@gmail.com and rickirosen1@gmail.com; PLEASE COPY RICKI ROSEN ON ALL EMAILS. WEB DESK, PLEASE POST CAMERA CREDIT FOR RICKI ROSEN. WEB: Needs graphic content warning)) ((INTRO)) [[Four months after the Hamas attacks on Israeli communities bordering Gaza, some of the estimated 125,000 Israelis displaced from those areas are returning to their homes. Others, however, say they still don’t feel safe and are not sure when they will go back. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Sderot. This video contains graphic images and may not be suitable for all viewers.]] ((VIDEO: ADANANI WITH IRON DOME IN BACKGROUND, VOA)) ((VIDEO: IRON DOME BATTERY IN SDEROT, VOA)) ((VIDEO: IRON DOME LAUNCH IN SDEROT, AFP)) ((VIDEO: HAMAS GUNMEN INVADE SDEROT)) ((Mandatory cg: i24 News)) ((VIDEO: BODIES OF ISRAELIS KILLED BY HAMAS GUNMEN IN SDEROT, AFP)) ((VIDEO: DESTROYED POLICE STATION IN SDEROT, AFP)) ((VIDEO: SDEROT RESIDENTS EVACUATED AFTER HAMAS ATTACK, AFP)) ((VIDEO: IDF JEEPS LEAVE HEBRON, AFP)) ((NARRATOR)) Noam Ivri Adanani lives in Sderot, just over a kilometer from the border with Gaza. Next to his apartment building is an Iron Dome battery that shoots down the missiles from Gaza aimed at this small city. On October 7, dozens of Hamas gunmen stormed into Sderot, shooting and killing more than 40 residents, including a group of senior citizens heading out for a trip. The gunmen also took over the local police station. Like his neighbors, Adanani was evacuated to a hotel on the Dead Sea a few days after the war with Hamas began. After he was released from three months of army reserve duty, Adanani and his wife decided it was time to come home. ((Noam Ivri Adanani, Sderot Resident, Male (in English), VOA)) “All this time since we left on the fifth day of the war, we said to ourselves this is our home. This is where we want to stay. We’re not going to surrender to people who don’t want to live alongside us in peace, but want to drive us away and harm us. And this is the best way to continue living our lives defiantly but confidently.” ((VIDEO: NOAM AND WIFE AHUVA ADANANI IN THEIR SDEROT APARTMENT, VOA)) ((NARRATOR)) Noam’s Ethiopian-Israeli wife, Ahuva, has a large family who were all evacuated from Sderot after the October 7 Hamas attack. She and many of her family members wanted to return, but she says she is sometimes scared. ((Radio Cue: She says she often looks behind her wondering if a terrorist is following her. “He could shoot me, murder me,” she says, adding, she doesn’t really feel safe but wanted to return to her home.)) ((Ahuva Adanani, Sderot Resident, Female (in Hebrew, NEEDS VOICEOVER), VOA)) “If I’m walking in the street, I turn around and think, ‘What if that person is a terrorist?’ He could shoot me, murder me. ((INSERT FLASH)) I don’t really feel safe, but I don’t have any other place to go. This is my home.” ((VIDEO: STREET POSTER SAYING “WE LOVE SDEROT” AND SUPPORTING THE WAR IN GAZA, VOA)) ((VIDEO: EVACUEES FROM GAZA BORDER COMMUNITIES IN DEAD SEA HOTEL, REUTERS)) ((VIDEO: EVACUEE CHILDREN IN TEMPORARY SCHOOL IN DEAD SEA HOTEL, REUTERS)) ((NARRATOR)) According to local officials, about one-third of Sderot’s 35,000 residents have returned to their homes. Many of the others who are still living in hotels or rental apartments are families who want their children to finish the school year in the temporary schools set up for the thousands of displaced children. ((Radio Cue: Elior Tawill is a volunteer medic with Israel’s ambulance service Magen David Adom and the father of five young children. He has not left Sderot since October 7, but his family has and is reluctant to return.)) ((Elior Tawill, Sderot Medic, Male (in English), VOA)) “My family still doesn’t feel safe enough after seeing what happened here and knowing that I’m outside in the October 7 attack helping the injured and taking them out of Sderot to the hospital. My wife and kids, I hope they will feel safe soon so we can come back completely.” ((VIDEO: BODIES OF HAMAS GUNMEN KILLED IN SAL’S BACKYARD)) ((Mandatory cg: Yigal Sal)) ((VIDEO: SAL PICKS UP HAMAS GUNMEN’S CLOTHING IN HIS BACKYARD, VOA)) ((NARRATOR)) But some Sderot residents say they will never come back. Yigal Sal says he is traumatized by the gun battles that occurred between Hamas gunmen and Israeli soldiers outside his house. The confrontation killed four gunmen and one soldier. Four months later, the gunmen’s tattered clothes are still on the ground next to a wall riddled with bullet holes. ((Radio Cue: Sal says he has no feeling of security anymore and is receiving psychological treatment. He says he can’t stop thinking about the soldier who was killed. He adds, he lived through rocket attacks for 23 years but never imagined it could get this bad. He wants to sell his home in Sderot and go elsewhere, he says.)) ((Yigal Sal, Sderot Resident, Male (in Hebrew, NEEDS VOICEOVER), VOA)) “I have no feeling of security to live in Sderot anymore. I am destroyed psychologically and am getting treatment. I can’t stop thinking about the soldier who was killed. We had Qassam rockets for 23 years but I never imagined it could get this bad. I just want to sell my house in Sderot and move away.” ((VIDEO: ARMY CHECKPOINT AT ENTRANCE TO SDEROT, VOA)) ((NARRATOR)) Israeli army checkpoints set up at the entrance to Sderot and other communities near the Gaza border have become busy with the cars of returning residents. But many of the evacuees say they still don’t feel safe and will not go back until Hamas in Gaza is no longer a threat. ((Linda Gradstein, VOA News, Sderot))
- Rights “Rights are not granted for this content on YouTube. Posting of this content on YouTube is strictly prohibited.”
- Network VOA
- Location (dateline) Sderot
- Embargo Date February 8, 2024 05:15 EST
- Byline Linda Gradstein
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English