In central Sderot, there is a road that curves over a low hill. It was here, some seventeen months ago on October 7, that Hamas terrorists drove to attack the police station.
The battle for the Sderot police station was one of the major struggles of the attack. Eventually, the station was destroyed, leaving a ruined shell. Today, the site where it was originally located is open, and it has turned into a new memorial.
Each time I’ve come to Sderot since October 7, the city has changed.
Today, Sderot felt relatively normal, several hours after Israel launched a new round of airstrikes on Hamas. These are the first major airstrikes since mid-January, when a ceasefire began. Sderot, like many cities, has recovered from the dark days after October 7. The tens of thousands of residents who were evacuated have returned.
There is a new digital center in the city, near the police station, where visitors can learn more about the October 7 attack and the struggles the cities have faced. The center is accessed via stairs that have been made to look like a mock tunnel from Gaza. It is harrowing to descend and ascend them.
In other areas of the city, there was a sense Tuesday of a quiet before a potential storm. At a lookout named Kobi’s Hill, there is a viewpoint over Gaza. One can see Beit Hanoun in the distance. It was a day filled with dust in the light wind.
The dust gave the low-lying hills of Gaza a coating of grey. One can only barely make out the ruined hulks of buildings in Beit Hanoun. The northern Gaza neighborhood has been destroyed over the past year of fighting.
On Tuesday, there were no sounds of fighting in Gaza. Even though the reports said the IDF had told people to leave some border areas in Gaza, there was a sense of calm.
Schools were canceled along the Gaza border. However, there was still traffic, and some people were working in the fields. A lone young man on a bicycle was plying the road near the Black Arrow site.
This is another area terrorists penetrated on October 7. This whole road was once littered with abandoned cars and bodies after October 7. Now, things have changed. The fields are back in working order. Some trees are beginning to bloom as spring begins.
However, there is still a sense that the war could grow. On Tuesday, Hamas did not launch rockets at Israel. In fact, despite the overnight airstrikes, there did not seem to be a sense of a new operation truly looming.
War still seemed distant
The war still seemed distant. However, the hostages are on everyone’s mind near the border. Communities have put up empty yellow chairs and ribbons and flags everywhere.
On the bus shelters, the stickers of the fallen are placed, commemorating those killed over the last year and a half. Even though much has been repaired, much remains broken in other ways. The roads and homes can be repaired, but the society is not so easily healed.