People flee the southern part of Israel.

It is a very strange experience to leave the house. No kids go to school and kinder gardens, but there is no feeling of school holiday . As I left for the super marked this morning to do shopping for the week end, there were no people walking the streets and no children in parks and on play grounds .
At the super marked I saw one child with her father and I met two mothers with children my girls age. I asked them how things were going and they answered that the situation is driving everybody crazy. When I suggested that their girls can come to play with my daughter one of the mothers told me she prefer her children not leaving the house. The distance between our houses is 60 metres.
1/3 of the inhabitants have left the area for the week end .Some people with rooms or cottages for rent up in the north have been offering them for free to people from the south. When I hear such things I fall in love all over again with this country............
We've had a quiet day. There has been no rockets close to where I live, but the people in Ashkelon and Sderot have had them all. The difference between them and us is that we have 45 seconds to get to a bombshelter or security room while they have 15 seconds only.

People in general are tense. We are all aware of the sufferings of Palestinian sivilians, and know that there is no way to prevent them from being hit when attacking by air. Although Israel has let more than 2000 tons of supplies through it is still not enough to meet their needs. On the other hand we also know that many of these sivilians are both willing and prepared to sacrifice themselves and their families as suicide bombers once the Israeli soldiers start the army operations from the ground. I thank God for the fact that I have no husband or son in the army and at the same time I suffer with the ones that do.....

Elin Elkouby