We left Jerusalem as though on a class trip – with packed lunches and reserved seats on the bus – and found ourselves, within an hour, at the foot of the blood-stained stairs on Baal Shem Tov St., where a pregnant woman and two male neighbors were killed on Thursday morning, the first three casualties of Israel’s ongoing operation against Hamas and the terror organizations in Gaza.
The trip was organized by the Government Press Office. There was a clear agenda: to show journalists how Israelis suffer by virtue of their proximity to Hamas-ruled Gaza. But the agenda needed no advancement beyond transportation.
The stores were shut, the streets quiet. On a beautiful cloudless day in the south of Israel, the trail of the terrorists’ rockets lingered for many minutes in the blue sky, arched like rainbows. In a playground without children, clusters of Border Police, in their gray-green uniforms, stood out against the bright red playground toys.
According to IDF figures, some 300 rockets have been fired at Israeli civilian centers since the airstrike Wednesday that killed Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari.
“Even animals aren’t treated this way,” said Efraim Amram, a middle-aged father of four and a long-time resident of Kiryat Malachi. “They intentionally target civilians.”
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