Fourteen-year-old Shir clearly remembers what she was doing on the morning of October 7, 2023, when she first heard the siren in her hometown of Sderot. She and her family ran into the safe room, where they stayed for the assigned five minutes. When she left the room, she heard shooting and ran to the window to see what the noise was. Hamas terrorists had just entered Sderot. When they saw her at the window of her fourth-floor apartment, they shot at her, grazing her forehead. Her father managed to get her out of their home, call an ambulance, and, together with another injured person, reach the local Magen David Adom clinic.
Although Shir experienced a miracle when the bullet itself only caused a superficial head injury, she did not escape further injury. When the bullet shattered the window of Shir’s home, many glass shards went into her eyes. While her head wound was treated and numerous shards were removed, some remain in her eyes, as doctors are not able to remove them without surgery.
That fateful day ended in Sderot with 52 policemen and civilians dead and many injured, in addition to many other incidents in the Gaza-surrounding communities. The police station bore the brunt of the attack and was totally ruined, as were a local supermarket, the municipal library, and other buildings.
What kept that day from turning into an even bigger disaster was the devotion, dedication, professionalism, and sheer determination of many policemen, soldiers, and civilians throughout the region who took control of the situation and fought back. Many came from near and far to help those in the line of fire and rescue them from the vicious attacks.
The police station will not be rebuilt on the same spot where it once stood. In its place, a monument telling the story and commemorating the fallen will be erected. Work on building a new police station on another site in the city has already begun.
Student Ambassadors of Sderot
This past spring, the AMIT High School in Sderot decided it was time to tell the stories of some of the survivors. They set up the Guidance Center for Sderot Heroism and helped local children and adolescents learn to speak to visitors from Israel and abroad.
The survivors attended workshops, learning how to tell their personal stories, talk to large crowds, and get listeners involved.
These students themselves have become ambassadors of Sderot, taking groups to visit several sites in town that were pivotal on that day.
The main goals of these tours are:
- To describe the experience of life in Sderot in general, with a focus on the October 7 events in particular.
- To create a connection between the events in Sderot and the concept of heroism.
- To enable unmediated meetings among AMIT students from all over the country.
- To empower children and adolescents in Sderot to tell their survival stories in a meaningful and interesting way. They are encouraged to share their personal experiences of strength and growth, making them true partners in the story of the survival of Sderot.
The tours include a general description of the town, its history, and its pivotal role on October 7. The guides explain to visitors what life is like in Sderot. One of the first things they need to explain is that if you hear a siren, you need to lie down on the ground and cover your head with your hands. Only when you hear the “all clear” siren can you get up. They tell visitors that because they are a large group, they can’t all fit into a mobile shelter.
The tours start at the Founders’ Building (Beit Hameyasdim) and pass by the police station and several other locations, including a central mobile shelter. This is the place where a group of elderly men and women were standing on October 7, waiting for the driver of their minibus to fix a flat tire so they could continue on their day trip to the Dead Sea. The terrorists showed up before the tire was fixed and killed the entire group.
Daniel Be’eri, principal of the AMIT Eitan High School for Boys in Ma’ale Adumim, visited the Guidance Center with his students.
“We went on a tour of Sderot and met the local teenagers there,” he says. “We were very impressed by the way they conveyed their personal stories about everything that happened there on October 7. I think that this has been and continues to be an amazing healing process for the girls. The fact that they are able to stand in the same places where they were injured, which includes their own homes, and pass on the stories of their heroism is very powerful. These girls have turned themselves from victims into heroines.”
Sixteen-year-old Alma is one of the young people who tells her story at the Guidance Center.
“We woke up on that Saturday morning to the sound of sirens,” she shares. “We didn’t understand what was going on. About 15 minutes later, people started sending photos and videos on WhatsApp about what they were seeing. My grandmother, who lives opposite the police station, called and said she could see terrorists walking in the street. I started crying. We spent the whole day in the safe room.”
“After three days, we were evacuated to a hotel at the Dead Sea,” she continues. “We stayed there for five months and only recently were able to return home. Now we are trying to catch up on the schoolwork we missed. I am very happy to talk to people who come to the center because the media doesn’t always report the news accurately.”
