Home Front Command officials and Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal will meet with company executives that built "fortified" bus stops in the city. The IDF says the 51 structures are worse than useless – they are dangerous.
The special bus stops were built to protect commuters from Palestinian Authority rocket attacks fired on Sderot from nearby Gaza. But, the material used to build the bus stops could shatter if hit by a rocket, creating dangerous flying shrapnel.
Not all of the bus shelters are useless, however, according to the co-founder of Operation LifeShield, which has provided two of the structures so far.
"Our roofs are designed to take a direct hit from a Kassam, the walls are designed to shield from concussion and shrapnel and have obtained certification from the Pikud HaOref (Home Front Command). Thanks to our international donors, we have four more bus stops scheduled to sheild civilians this month," emphasized Josh Adler.
"You can view our bus stops on our website and they even look different. [The first two] bus stops were built near the Beit Sefer Yisodi Amit (the Amit Elementary School)," added organization volunteer Dan Leubitz.
A Channel 10 TV News report said Sunday night that the specially-protected bus stops in Sderot (built by the Eckerstein company, noted Adler) had 20-centimeter thick walls, instead of 40-centimeter thick walls as required by regulations. In addition, experts quoted in the report said the building material could shatter if struck by a rocket, endangering bystanders as well as those caught inside the structure.
Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal immediately halted the installment of the special bus stops. Sarah Sasson, head of the Parents Forum in Sderot, was livid upon learning the grim news.
"Whoever put up these stops is a criminal and a murderer," she fumed, "because young children could have hidden in them, expecting safety and instead have been killed."
Other townfolk said they were unsurprised by the news. They noted that a missile recently penetrated a supposedly reinforced building.
The Home Front Command spent millions of shekels to reinforce a school building, they added, only to discover that the "fortified" building was still vulnerable to the rocket that slammed into the structure.
Sderot Task Force head Alon Davidi said, "It's not enough that the government fails to fulfill its function and refrains from ordering the IDF to begin ground operations in Gaza – now we feel [the government] has turned its back on us in this matter as well."