Rachmiel Steinberg, a resident of Sderot whose home was directly hit by a mortar shell that was fired from Gaza on Thursday, recalled the moments of shock in a conversation with Arutz Sheva.
"I came home at around 8:30 and saw that everything was black," said Steinberg. "My wife and daughter were in the ‘mamad’ (secured room) and were in shock.”
Asked how residents of Sderot are maintaining their normal life with the rocket fire constantly in the background, he said, "Psychologically it is very hard. We simply jump into the mamad when there is a siren and wait."
Steinberg was pessimistic about the possibility of the rocket fire ever completely stopping.
"There is no such thing. It remains a dream,” he said.
Around 100 residents of Sderot protested at the entrance to the city on Thursday, in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Protesters bore signs reading "destroy the Hamas regime in Gaza," "let the IDF win," and "kill first the one who comes to kill you," a precept of the Jewish sages. They called on the government to launch a wide-ranging military mission in Gaza to cease the constant rocket fire.
Israel on Thursday delivered an ultimatum to Hamas to stop rocket fire from Gaza within 48 hours. Otherwise, Israel warned, it intends to launch an attack on Gaza.
Hamas, however, was unfazed by the Israeli threats. A spokesman for Hamas’s “military wing”, the Al-Qassam Brigades, responded to the Israeli ultimatum by saying that the campaign of the Palestinian people against the "occupier" is not bound by time, and called Israel “a racist enemy who permits the blood of others and relates only to Jewish blood as holy.”