My first spied qassam
Posted: November 20th, 2006, 12:11 am
It was an eyewitness first. Walking to school yesterday (Sunday) morning, and I passed the fields watching the workers planting, or weeding or removing stones (not sure - cause I thought machines do most of that kind of thing), and suddenly I heard a Boom. There'd been no pre-whistle or any form of warning whatsoever - just a Boom. It's a dull thud without echo that constitutes the qassam sound and it was that.
A few minutes later, I saw grey smoke flowing upwards from the direction of the public school. The direction was clear but whether or not it was from the school or in a further place was impossible to tell until I continued about 7 minutes along the trail. (My daughter goes to that public school, so the 7 minutes were filled with imagined smells of dread).
When the school came into sight, I was quite happy to see it unsmoking and fully there. A minute later, I asked the guard who stands at the gate entrance checking out the school buses before they enter the High School territory. He said that the quassam landed somewhere between the public school and the local Community Center (the same one that hosted the Poetry Evening last Thursday).
He looked a little bemused: "First it's Sderot, and now it's Eshkol," he commented with a what-can-you-do half smile on his face. I reported back to G, on the kibbutz, that our daughter was safe.
Later on, I took a walk over to the area to see if I could find remnants of what I'd heard. No luck. The news broadcasted that it landed in an open field, no damage.
To my students, that morning, I told them that in the event of a next time, if there was any warning, we were to hit the floor, or take cover under desks, or at least go out into the protected hallway (One corridor has been reinforced with metal plating and if a person stays below the windows, there's a good chance for protection).
So that's the story. Our school is no longer out of reach. Hmmm, one tends to say. And staying alert has never been more important.
I couldn't find a map in English but this one shows where we are. The dark yellow area on the coast is the Gaza Strip. The lighter yellow to the east is our area (kibbutzim and our Municipality and Schools) and the white area was at one time considered 'safe' which is no longer is, but it seems that it's still the safest.
A few minutes later, I saw grey smoke flowing upwards from the direction of the public school. The direction was clear but whether or not it was from the school or in a further place was impossible to tell until I continued about 7 minutes along the trail. (My daughter goes to that public school, so the 7 minutes were filled with imagined smells of dread).
When the school came into sight, I was quite happy to see it unsmoking and fully there. A minute later, I asked the guard who stands at the gate entrance checking out the school buses before they enter the High School territory. He said that the quassam landed somewhere between the public school and the local Community Center (the same one that hosted the Poetry Evening last Thursday).
He looked a little bemused: "First it's Sderot, and now it's Eshkol," he commented with a what-can-you-do half smile on his face. I reported back to G, on the kibbutz, that our daughter was safe.
Later on, I took a walk over to the area to see if I could find remnants of what I'd heard. No luck. The news broadcasted that it landed in an open field, no damage.
To my students, that morning, I told them that in the event of a next time, if there was any warning, we were to hit the floor, or take cover under desks, or at least go out into the protected hallway (One corridor has been reinforced with metal plating and if a person stays below the windows, there's a good chance for protection).
So that's the story. Our school is no longer out of reach. Hmmm, one tends to say. And staying alert has never been more important.
I couldn't find a map in English but this one shows where we are. The dark yellow area on the coast is the Gaza Strip. The lighter yellow to the east is our area (kibbutzim and our Municipality and Schools) and the white area was at one time considered 'safe' which is no longer is, but it seems that it's still the safest.