Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi on Thursday demanded the complete evacuation of his town’s residents, with the understated warning, “It’s not safe here.”
His call followed a report that seven rockets fell in the city, with direct hits on buildings. In one of the hits one person was critically injured, one seriously, and one moderately. In another, one was critically injured, and one seriously. One of the critically injured was a 20-year-old woman. All the injured were rushed to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva.
Sderot is a development town in the western Negev, located only one kilometer from the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip. Some areas of the city are only 840 meters (2,760 ft.) away.
On Shabbat Simchat Torah, October 7, Hamas gunmen attacked Sderot, engaging in firefights with Israeli police and civilians in the streets and occupying the town’s police station. At least twenty police officers were killed in the fighting.
As early as last Sunday, the IDF began the orderly evacuation of all the kibbutzim and moshavim that are located less than 2 kilometers from the Gaza border fence, but for some reason, many of Sderot’s residents remained, despite their proximity to the border.
As of 2021, Sderot’s population is 30,553.
