Children on their way back to school.

Children living in the southern parts of the country have lost two weeks of learning because of the war so far. The Israeli Government informed us that it will take time before the situation gets back to normal but as there are less rockets being fired at us some schools started teaching again today.
Children in 11’th and 12’th grade have exams to pass this spring. Therefore the schools are going to be opened for them first. All teaching will be done in the schools’ bomb shelters and they will be transported both ways in small groups lead by soldiers.
A school in Beer Sheva and a kinder garden in Ashdod were hit today by rockets. The kinder garden was empty but it did great damage to the building . The children at the school did not get hurt as they were inside the bomb shelters. We feel the ground shaking when bombs fall in Ashdod. You can only imagine what it feels like to be in the very same building when it happens…….
So far six schools and kinder gardens have been hit directly. The only reason why Israel has not suffered greater human losses has to do with people following the instructions for safety.

Our news reporters inform us about what the Israeli soldiers are facing as they are entering refugee camps and Gaza city itself. I have already mentioned that Hamas has developed a tunnel system connecting bunkers, store rooms for weapons and ammunition functioning as a subterranean city. The ones that are being used as “protecting shields” are the civilians living on top of these “safe havens’ for Hamas fighters. Once hit by Israeli fire these store rooms will cause extra damage as they explode.
We have been watching a video filmed by Israeli soldiers today showing a children’s school with explosives being connected with wires “waiting “ to blow up whoever enters. Soldiers were searching a neighborhood and told that 30 out of 50 houses were prepared the same way.
It is obvious that Hamas has been preparing for the Israeli soldiers to enter by foot. They were not prepared for the first stage of this operation when Israel decided to attack by air.

It seems like the Israeli Army learned something from the Jenin operation back in 2002 when 23 soldiers were killed within a little more than a week in the beginning of April.
I remember well how the Palestinians had prepared themselves to “receive” the soldiers back in those days. There were wires everywhere connected to bombs under cars, at entrances to houses and in the streets leading from one house to the other. The whole world was screaming at Israel as rumors had it that thousands were being massacred. In the end the Palestinians killed numbered 53.

War is cruel….. it doesn’t matter from what angel you are watching. One way or another civilians are suffering. It can be directly by being killed or indirectly by their loved ones being killed. The main difference between the two groups in this war can best be described with the words spoken by Hamas MP Hammad :” We seek death like you seek life”

Elin Elkouby