The Gush Katif expellees living within Katyusha-rocket range demand that the government provide them with bomb shelters: “You threw us out of homes, at least protect us from rockets.”

Close to 1,800 Gush Katif families were expelled from their homes in the summer of 2005 – part of Ariel Sharon's Disengagement-from-Gaza plan that most observers blame for the Hamas terrorist build-up that resulted in the current war.  The largest contingent of expellees is living in Nitzan, just north of Ashkelon. 

Children can stand in the sewage pipes - and even play in them between rocket attacks. Adults, however, may find it somewhat uncomfortable to spend more than three minutes there.

The Nitzan residents were provided last week with rocket “shelters” in which to find protection in the event of rocket attacks: large concrete sewage pipes.  Children can stand in them, and even have fun in them – which they in fact do when they play there between rocket attacks.  Adults, however, may find it somewhat uncomfortable to spend more than three minutes there. 

Not far away, in Ein Tzurim near Kiryat Malachi, the former Gush Katifniks don’t even have that.  They sent a letter to Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, saying that their plaster-board temporary homes provide absolutely no protection during a rocket attack.  

 

“Some 140 families that were uprooted from Gush Katif live in the caravan site aside Kibbutz Ein Tzurim,” the letter states.  “We are nearly 600 people, including 100 children of nursery and kindergarten age and another 90 school-children.  Every structure here is made of plaster; not even one building has a concrete roof.”

“The only places that are considered ‘protected expanses’ are in the nurseries, but these are closed by order of the Home Front Command.  The children therefore sit at home in their caravans, lacking the most basic safety measures.”

“Just yesterday,” the letter states, referring to Tuesday, “a rocket landed just 200 meters from our site.  When the siren was heard, we stood around, helpless to do anything.”

“We demand and request that we be supplied, without delay, portable sheltered structures [as were deployed in Sderot long ago – ed.] or any other means that could provide a solution for us in case of necessity.”

N'vei Dekalim Head: Contradictory Instructions

Eliezer Orbach, head of the N’vei Dekalim community in Ein Tzurim, told Arutz-7’s Oranit Netzer that Home Front Command personnel who visited the caravan site first advised them to go into protected rooms in case of attack.  “After we told them that there are no concrete structures in the entire site,” Orbach said, “they gave us contradictory instructions.  Some of them said that if there is an alert we should run outside and lie on the ground with our hands on our head, while other said we should stay inside near the northernmost wall of the caravan.”

“Even though nothing can really help with these plaster structures,” Orbach said, “we have requested written instructions.  We have not yet received them.”

"Return Us to Gush Katif"

Asked what he wants the government to do, he said, “They should return us to Gush Katif, where, even though it was difficult, we knew how to deal with the daily routine of Kassams and mortar shells. But at the very least, they should provide us with temporary shelters – and not sewage pipes like in Nitzan; there is a limit to the humiliation to which we must be subjected.”

“When they threw us out of Gush Katif,” Orbach continued, “we knew this whole thing would blow up in our faces, and we said as much...  It is the government’s responsibility to provide our children with security.”

IDF Response

The IDF Spokesman’s response: “Very soon, the Home Front Command will provide an appropriate response for the residents in Ein Tzurim, in accordance with the fortification program. Instructions from the Home Front Command during rocket attacks have been given to the residents.”