After Brief Respite, Rockets Rain on Ashkelon

After 72 hours of ‘ceasefire,’ at 8:00am this morning, the sounds of air raid sirens, civilians scrambling to safe areas and rockets exploding were heard throughout Ashkelon. By 2:00pm, over 50 rockets had landed in the area.

The renewed hostilities interrupted the indirect talks in Cairo, brokered by Egypt and backed by the United States, for a more durable cease-fire agreement. While the rocket fire signaled Hamas’s refusal to extend the temporary lull and its desire to apply pressure for its demands to be met at the talks, the Israeli government said in a statement that “Israel will not hold negotiations under fire.”

Israel had said it was willing to extend the truce unconditionally, but the Cairo talks, which began on Wednesday, appeared to have yielded few results.

Chabad Utilizes Ceasefire Calm to Care for Wounded

“We were hoping to be able to get our lives back to normal. Yesterday was the first time the office staff came to work after 29 days,” said Rabbi Menachem M. Lieberman, director of Chabad of Ashkelon.

“Yesterday was a day of quiet. Together with a visiting family from Montreal, Canada, we visited the wounded soldiers in the Barzilai Ashkelon Hospital,” he said. “The soldiers needed to hear the ‘Thank You’ and the expression of appreciation – for the tremendous self-sacrifice of themselves – for us in Ashkelon.”

Especially moving was to see examples of real self-sacrifice: a helmet punctured by shrapnel, a soldier – a member of the Chabad Shul – whose leg was badly hurt, and a soldier whose face on one side was covered with wounds because that’s where the shell landed.

The guests distributed to the soldiers gifts, letters from children from Boston, and Tefilin to a soldier who lost his during combat.

“At the moment we are trying to help the many families who are in very difficult financial situations due to the war. Many have had no income for almost a month,” said Rabbi Lieberman.

As the war goes on, with no end in sight, you can join those who have helped the war effort by donating at: http://www.cashkelon.com.