Families raced for safe spaces late Sunday morning following the wail of the Code Red rocket alert siren in the Gaza Belt communities of Yad Mordechai and Netiv Ha’Asara.
The alert sounded at 11:17 a.m. Sunday (June 28). Within seconds, an explosion was heard close to the security fence on Israel’s southern border.
Miraculously, the terrorist rocket aimed at Israel’s civilian population had landed short — within the Gaza region.
Nevertheless, Israelis living in the south have been kept on their toes in the past several weeks, never knowing when the next air raid siren might awaken them from a night’s rest, or yank them out of work or force their children from their play.
Not only is a disruption of their lives, but it is also puts their bodies in a constant state of stress and low-level tension that mirrors the “flight or fight” state found in those who maintain hypervigilance following a traumatic experience, or who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder.)
Literally hundreds of thousands of Israelis have since been found to be struggling with symptoms of the condition over the past decade, specifically since the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza and the incessant, escalating rocket attacks on southern Israel from the region that resulted.
In the past few weeks, several rocket attacks have been launched by the Salafi “Omar Brigades.” The radical Islamist group linked to Da’esh (ISIS) is fighting with the Hamas terrorist organization for control over the region.