Four or five families of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the Gaza border, are planning to leave their homes, after member Jimmy Kedoshim was killed by a Hamas-fired rocket last Friday. This, as opposed to the "40 families" that have falsely been reported as planning to abandon their homes in the face of the rocket threats.
Kfar Aza is located in the western Negev, across the highway from the site of the religious Kibbutz Saad.
Hamas terrorist leaders have vowed to continue rocket attacks on the Negev until the city of Sderot becomes a "ghost town." The government of Israel still refrains from giving orders to the IDF to slience the rocket fire at all cost.
Spokesperson Belies Reports
Kibbutz Kfar Aza spokesperson Varda Goldstein said it was not true that 40 families were interested in leaving for good. "Rather, various families wish to leave for a few days, in order to get over their fear and shock over what happened here on Friday. The Shaar HaNegev Regional Council has been helping families do this for eight years already, ever since the rockets began."
Goldstein said that she and her neighbors demand that the government work on two fronts: "Take the proper military action to eliminate this threat, and in the meanwhile, afford us proper protection - reinforced rooms, shelters, and the like - so that we will have where to run when a rocket is fired."
Reinforcement: A Long-Term Solution?
Asked if she believes that reinforcing sheltered areas is truly a long-term solution, she emphasized that she and her neighbors don't wish to give orders to the government or the army, "but we insist that we be able to live with at least minimum security during this period... Would you rather have us run to live in the United States? I have been here for over 40 years, and I'm not planning to leave."
Goldstein said that government officials have promised more protection within the Kibbutz, but that no timetable has been set.
Some 150 families currently live in the Kibbutz, though not all are members. Located just three kilometers from Gaza, Kfar Aza was founded in 1951 by Jews from Egypt and Tangiers, and belongs to the secular United Kibbutz Movement.