01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

When people look at the sky,
they see clouds.

They wonder if it's going to rain.

They may imagine a dinosaur
or a sheep.

But when people on Israel's border with Gaza
look at the sky,

they look in fear.

Who knows what might be coming

Qassam rockets? Balloon bombs?
Pyrotechnic kites?

A siren? Running, to shelter?

Or maybe the local superhero
wilT come to the fescue'.

Its name is Iron Dome.

Run, Shelly!

About 100 rockets were fired
in the first hour,

mostly at neighborhoods
in the western Negev.

Suddenly we heard a red alert,
then another.

It was all red alerts.

Iron Dome intercepts
dozens of rockets,

but the range of the fire increases
and reaches Beit Shemesh.

My beloved rfty of Sderot.

True, I left Sderot years ago

for "the city that never sleeps,"

but my art still draws on
the sleepy town'of my childhood,

a warm, lively town,
but a bit forgotten.

No dramatic incidents,
and no live breaking news from the area.

People barely heard of Sderot back then,
just 'another town ‘from the periphery.

WhaLdid’make ilji
were .mostly good things...

Music...

And politicians who gave hope...

To this day, I proudly boast
that I'm originally from Sderot.

Sderot was a town that fulfills dreams..

Living in a can

Dad, drive home! Daddy!

Enough!

When I came to Sderot,

it was a developing town,
not yet a city.

A tiny place where everyone
knew everyone.

A fun, friendly place.

I was divorced without children

and I started working,
saving money,

and all I wanted was
to have a baby.

At the time, being a single mother
was very unpopular.

I didn't care.
That's what I wanted.

I met Afik's father, Itzik,

and we decided
we didn't want to marry or...

We'd have a baby

and Afik was born

It's an indescribable joy.

At first I thought of calling him Tom,

but people said, "Don't be silly,
'"Tom written backwards (in Hebrew) is 'death',"

so I gave up on "Tom" and...
we chose "Afik."

How do you say "thank you" in English?

Me.
-How?

Thank you.
-Thank you, that's right.

And how do you say, "I love you?"

Tat you.

I... you.
-I love you, that's right.

"Good job!"

"Oops..."

Peekaboo!

We're in the M-3 district of Sderot.

Here with us is Eli Moyal,
mayor of Sderot,

who came to the site
in his slippers.

He lives right around here.

Eli, what did you hear?

I didn't hear it, I saw it,

I saw the shells land,

mortar shells land.

It was an incredible sight.

I call on Prime Minister Arik Sharon,
and the Security Cabinet,

the answer isn't more shelters,
the answer isn't taking cover.

The Israeli government must stop
the mortar attacks on Sderot.

As fate would have it
I was mayor at the time

and someone decided to fire
those silly Qassam rockets at us.

At first they weren't qassams,
but never mind.

They were silly mortar shells.

Imagine a town with over 20,000 citizens,

in the middle of nowhere...

a shell lands without warning

Then a process began,
that still continues to this day....

a process that turned Sderot
^into Israel's punching bag.

They pretend to worry,

but what do they care
that Sderot is under constant attack?

They called them "drizzles"

but they turned into
a deadly rain.

They said, "Come see the rockets
that are falling on Sderot."

They didn't call them rockets,
they called it Qassams,

made from stolen metal street poles,
just a piece of flying metal,

and thank God, there was no
serious damage or casualties.

I heard a noise and looked out
the window

and saw it plunge into the ground
in a trail of sparks and fire.

They kept talking about missiles
landing in an open field.

It didn't bother me or most of the residents here
because they didn't land in populated areas.

No one was wounded or k*lled,

but people only respond
after disaster strikes.

In 2002, everyone laughed about it.
After all, no harm was done.

And only the city's mayor, Eli Moyal,
kept issuing warnings...

He ran from one TV studio to another

and turned from a local sheriff,
into a national hero.

I think we're going to see
serious chaos here.

It isn't getting better,
it's getting worse.

You'll notice that their rockets
are reaching further all the time.

How far will they go?

If they start firing Katyusha rockets,
we'll be in big trouble.

And some residents
say they have Katyusha rockets.

Where's the solution?

If Sderot is Israel's punching bag,

Gaza is even a bigger punching bag
for the Palestinians.

Two million people, stuck there behind
a fence, getting struck and striking back.

In the 1980s, we used to do our shopping there.

And people from Gaza used to work in Sderot.

Only a 10-minute drive and
you're at the beach in Gaza.

When the rocket fire began, the IDF
was still inside, controlling Gaza,

and the Palestinian Authority tried
to run things as if it was a real state.

Hamas shot the first rockets fired at Sderot.

Back then, they were considered
a religious and social organization

which, although they did their best
to halt the peace process,

people thought they were small
and insignificant

and would go back
where they came from.

Among the anarchy
in the Gaza Strip,

Hamas exploited the situation

and started firing rockets
and building up its military.

But Hamas did other things, too.

it terrorized Israel in blood.

At about 12 noon

an expl*si*n rocked Haifa.

This is the burnt bus

and this is the long trail of destruction
sown with metal and blood

it left behind when it toppled,
burning, down...

At the entrance to HaSharon Mall
in Netanya,

the t*rror1st blew himself up,

k*lling six other people.

More than 100 people were wounded
and hospitalized...

Before 4 p.m.,

a suicide b*mber blew himself up
outside a busy falafel stand.

Five deadj, 30 wounded,
five of them in critical condition...

The Palestinian front created challenges
never seen before.

Suicide bombers...

Buses exploding,
restaurants collapsing,

entire families being k*lled,

and the home front
suffered hundreds of casualties.

In this chaotic situation,
the Qassam rockets

weren't considered
a very serious threat.

Honestly, one can probably understand
the IDF strategy.

But to this day, that is probably
Israel's biggest problem...

There's always something more urgent

and more threatening to deal with.

Meanwhile, Hamas’developed
better rockets.

With ordinary binoculars,
you could see

Palestinians in Gaza
drying fertilizer on their roofs,

shoving it into a tube
cut from a post

and boom, firing.

Who did they fire at?

At Sderot.

Building weapons that can overcome

the obstacles set up by
Israel's occupying army

was Adnan Al-Ghoul's idea.

He was the first to develop the rockets

and he's considered "The Godfather" of Hamas'
military industry in the Gaza Strip.

That's why Israel saw Adnan Al-Ghoul
as a dangerous man

who constituted a serious threat
to Israel.

That's why they tried
to k*ll him many times.

Al-Ghoul wasn't the only one
Israel tried to k*ll.

Prime Minister Arik Sharon
went for all the Hamas leaders.

The plan was to wipe them out,
one by one, from the air.

Makadme, Shehade, Abu Shneb
and others were all k*lled,

but what difference did it make?
None at all.

Greetings to you all.

This is a special broadcast
following the k*lling of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin,

founder and leader of Hamas,

and seven of his men...

The eliminaton of Ahmad Yassin,
the head of the snake,

he who stands at the tip
of Hamas' pyramid of terrorism,

whom everyone fears
will take over Gaza.

Ahmad Yassin was a t*rror1st leader.

He is the Palestinian Bin-Laden.

His hands are stained with
the blood of Israeli children.

Eliminating Sheikh Yassin
was like slapping a bull.

Hundreds of thousands of furious
mourners attended his funeral in Gaza

and swore to avenge him.

Scathing responses echoed
throughout the Arab world.

Angry condemnations of Sheikh Yassin's
assassination from most Arab states.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah,

who fired missiles at the IDF post
on Mt. Dov just this evening,

now fires words and threatens
a painful reprisal.

They will pay dearly
for their despicable crime.

It's the Jewish people's natural right,

like any nation that wants
to survive,

to chase down those
who try to destroy it.

Every elimination of a Hamas leader

didn't weaken Hamas.
Actually on the contrary,

it made Hamas stronge

and made the people
take a harder line

within the Hamas movement.

A.fik, look at me.

Two...

and one to grow on.

It turns out that Sheikh Yassin,
as Israel thought,

was very dear to them.

After his m*rder
they went ballistic.

Flocks of rockets shook Sderot

and it wasn't funny anymore.

The people of Sderot
got used to the equation:

An IDF attack on Gaza by night
equals Qassam missiles by day.

We knew we'd be hit by Qassams,
and we were. This time it was dramatic.

They hit three locations, with casualties
and destruction in all three.

Unfortunately, I was alone in the fight.

Israel's brass and defense ministers
and chiefs of staff

paid no attention at all.

But life in Sderot was terrifying.

If you ask me
what people should've done,

they should've run away from the city.

Mommy.
-What?

Can I do that? -Soon.
-With that? -Soon.

Yeah? -Soon.
-Mom, can I use the big one?

Yes, if you're careful.

You let me? -Yes.

Yay!

What about the big one?
-That one.

I'll film you. -Me?
-Yes.

It was a Monday morning,

my day off work.

e planned to drive to Netivot
for a checkup with our family doctor.

e walked hand in hand

and I told him how much I love him

and that after the appointment
we'd have a fun day

Yaakov, we're in the playground
of two kinderfartens.

Kindergarten Lilach, which Afik
was planning to go to this morning...

Afik, only four years old,

and Afik's mother,

now hospitalized in critical condition,

crossed the street right here,
just a few meters away,

to bring Afik to kindergarten,

when a Qassam m*ssile struck her.

We woke up lying on the street.

I didn't know what had happened
or how we'd gotten hurt,

I only knew that I couldn't see Afik
and that my leg hurt.

I heard screaming
and people around me

and I screamed, "Where's Afik?"

Some young men moved him a bit
and I saw his face,

only his face.

I remember seeing a little scratch

but his face was unscathed,
there was no sign of a wound.

And his eyes were closed

but I saw him.

Who's watching over our children?

Nobody,

and these children are our future.

Who's watching over them?
Nobody.

This child died for no reason!

because of the negligence
of all sorts of people in this country

and a child is a whole world.

The Tact thrat Afik died oiji Way.
to kindergarten came as a shock to Sderot.

therblood of a little-boy
should awake'n the whole

Don't you think?

As it turns out, not really.

But it felt like ,
nobody really eared.

But it turned out
someone did care.

Afik's death

did move someonefa brigadier general
in the Ministry of Defense.

His name is Danny Gold.

It infuriated me that
we had me. solution.

I didn't know exactly how to do it,

but I was sure that in Israel,
the startup nation,

and I'd worked in
many, many fields,

every field of technology...

I was sure that, with the right people,

and with the right focus, and the right choice
of architecture and technology,

We could make it happen.

Gold issued a requefst for proposal.

He was looking for someone
who had an idea

that could save us
from rockets falling from the sky.

Last night, a quiet summer's night,
turned into a bloody night in 10 minutes.

Three consecutive Katyusha barrages
k*lled three people,

wounded 11 and damaged property.

If you think about it,
the writing had been on the wall for years.

Back in the 1960s, t*rrorists fired on
northern Israel from Lebanon.

Kiryat Shemona, remember?

The IDF's answer was to conquer.

Israel thought that conquering a place
meant halting m*ssile fire.

But years later, Israel was struck
by missiles from a more distant land.

"Viper alert. Viper alert."

The IDF Spokesman reports
that, due to a m*ssile attack on Israel,

a warning alert has been sounded.

All citizens must immediately
put on their gas masks

and enter a sealed room.

In 1991, when S*ddam Hussein
fired missiles at Israel,

Tel Aviv was in the dark.

I remember I was at a gas station
in Tel Aviv with my brother

when in a single night
they fired a lot of missiles,

probably 20 missiles,

and they all struck Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan,
the sea. It was a huge fireworks show,

all Tel Aviv is dark
and there's nothing we can do.

Like sitting ducks in a sh**ting range.

Israelis seem to have suppressed this strange
period,

but to this day, if someone said
"viper alert" on the news,

many people would panic
and ask,

"Where's the sealed room?"

The government tried to calm the fear
with American missiles

with a fantastic name:
Patriot.

Shortly after being set up,
the battery was deployed last night.

Eight launchers, each armed with
four missiles.

The target is spotted
by long-range radar

and the data is conveyed
to the operations car,

where the computer
launches the missiles.

And so it happened yesterday.

I've got it!

Only after the w*r did Israel discover that
these patriots were anti-aircraft missiles.

The fireworks were impressive,

but in the end it turned out
that it was the shards from the Patriot missiles

that landed on our heads,

and the damage they did
was much worse

than that of the Scud missiles,
which came all the way from Iraq.

I remember thinki

"Why can't the State of Israel come up with
a solution for this?"

The only good that came of it was,

one,
I couldn't get it off my mind,

and two, it was possible
to find parking in Tel Aviv.

While the scientists were trying to
figure out a defense,

the IDF was busy attacking.

They say that the best defense
is a good offense, right?

Last night an Israeli helicopter
fired a m*ssile at a car in western Gaza.

In the car were Adnan Al-Ghoul
and Imad Abbas, his senior aide.

They were both k*lled
on the spot.

Hamas admitted today
that the deceased is the engineer

who was in charge of many
"military projects"

including upgrading the Qassam rockets
and the new Yassin m*ssile.

The crowning success of the attacks
was the elimination of Adnan Al-Ghoul,

the bitter foe,
inventor of the Qassam rockets.

I was in the hospital when I heard
they'd captured and k*lled

the man behind the terror attack
that k*lled Afik.

Was I glad?

i think part of me was.

Did it change anything? No.

The pain and the loss remain.

Everyone thinks they're irreplaceable,
but it's not necessarily so.

Adnan Al-Ghoul went six feet under,

while above ground he was replaced by
Ahmed Jabari.

Jabari joined Hamas in Israeli prisen,
of all places.

398 Palestinian prisoners
were released this morning.

Two refused release and asked
to serve their full sentence.

during the Oslo Accords,

unlike other prisoners
released by Israel,

he refused
to promise to halt terrorism,

earning himself
two extra years in jail.

He marked himself as a radical

whose word was gold.

He refused to sign the, paper,

even though the Hamas leadership
wanted him out of jail.

He was quiet but practical.

He built and bolstered
the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades

more than anyone else.

By then, the lDF knew
that Jabari was dangerous.

When they tried to assassinate him,
he was only wounded.

His son, his brother and three other
relatives were k*lled.

Then Jabari, who was never
a big fan of Israel,

decided to take revenge.

We're now on the street
where the Qassam rocket landed.

The Qassam landed just before 5 p.m.

Children playjng here outside
bore the brunt of the shrapnel

and the results are tragic:
Two children dead, 2 and 4 years old.

Yuval Abebe and Dorit Binsan,

the two children k*lled yesterday
by the Qassam barrage on Sderot,

will be buried in the town cemetery
tomorrow morning.

Before my very eyes I saw my daughter,
my flower...

on the ground.

There is no consolation for parents

who, in a few minutes,

will bury children
ages 2 and 4.

t's heartbreaki

I don't think there's another city
in the world where people live

in such an impossible reality.

No more Qassams!
No more Qassams!

All this,

while the town has been
shut down for three days.

The schools and kindergartens
are closed.

The welfare office is closed.
Trash isn't being collected.

On Sunday, Sderot will close
the roads in and out,

because the Israeli government
decided to disconnect from Sderot,

so we will disconnect from the state.

You live in fear 24/7.
People don't understand it.

What it's like...

Because there's no warning.

A shell can land any second.

It's an impossible reality,
an insane reality.

No more Qassams!
No more Qassams!

The mayor at the time,
Eli Moyal,

closed off the city,
shut down the schools,

placed tractors at the entrance
to town. We protested,

went to Jerusalem, protested
in front of the parliament building,

but all that didn't come to much.

Later, they eventually said,
"Okay, let's secure their schools at least,

so their schools will be protected."

So they put steel panels
on the roofs.

Then they secured
the kindergartens.

But that wasn't enough either.

An effort must be made to stop...

Mommy, a Qassam

Rikki, calm down.

Be quiet...

Sima... It's alright. Breathe deep.

Mommy...
-Bring the boy here.

Bring the children here, Batya.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz,
who visited Sderot today

and saw the Qassam damage for himself,

had an unpleasant reception.

If Beit Hanoun has to be wiped out,

it should be wiped out.

think the Americans would do that.

Mofaz came to me and said,
"Moyal, what do you need?"

I said, "Go back to your ministry headquarters,

talk to your engineers,

and don't leave until
they find a solution."

The mayor pounded the desk

in front of the Southern Command GOC
and the Defense Minister and said,

"Gentlemen, I can't continue
like this with the residents.

I need that we will have a
warning somehow, something."

The range was so short, that it was hard to
come up with a system

that would sound an alert when
a rocket is fired from the Gaza Strip.

Because of the short range.

They started experimenting.
I know nothing about these things,

I don't develop things.

They asked me to find a place
that overlooks the Gaza Strip

and we found a friend's apartment.

We took over part of his balcony

which overlooked Gaza

and set up the cameras
and antennas there.

He didn't know what we
were doing in his home.

He only knew that it was
top secret.

Every time it spotted a rocket,
they had to press the button,

"Red Dawn" alert.

Red Dawn. Red Dawn. Red Dawn.

Before the "Red Dawn" early warning system,
we were taken by surprise.

We suddenly hear an expl*si*n.

We were unprepared.

We couldn't take cover
or prepare ourselves.

With the "Red Dawn" alert,

even though it wasn't
100-percent accurate,

at least we could take cover,
even if it was a false alarm.

All these shelters are new, right?
-Yes.

Red Dawn...
-There you go. Live.

Everyone to the shelter!

Red Dawn...
-Speak of Fhe devil.

Run, everyone. Was this
your idea? -Red Dawn...

Amazing.

Red Dawn.

Red Dawn.

Red Dawn.

Red Dawn.

Red Dawn.

One day I was contacted
by the IDF Chief of Staff's office

saying that a girl from Sderot
wrote him a letter,

a girl named Shahar (Dawn),

and whenever she wears
a red shirt to school,

they'd tell her,
"You're bringing us bad luck..."

"Red Dawn, Red Dawn..."

And she wrote that it irritated her.

So we were instructed
to change it to "Color Red."

"Color Red"

"Color Red"

"Color Red"

"Color Red"

"Color Red"

"Color Red"

So "Red Dawn" became
"Color Red"

but not every place has a shelter,

so they placed shelters
all over Sderot.

So there'd always be
a place to run to.

The idea of the secure playground is
that the kids can play

and when there's a "Color Red" alert,
they go into these coverings.

Protected coverings.

They'll have rubber floors,

they'll have games inside,

so they can play
when there's a "Color Red" alert,

as if they're going in to play,
not to take cover...

from something terrible.

The only problem was,

it only gave us 15 seconds
to take cover.

in an NBA game,

you can win the title in 15 seconds.

But what can a mother

with four kids do in 15 seconds
at 2 am?

We're putting that mother
in an impossible position.

She can't take four kids
to a shelter at the same time.

My kids who were born here
and know the fear,

whether to come out or not come out..
"Can we come out now?"

And when they have to
figure out a route,

"Hold on, if I go through this neighborhood,
will there be a shelter?

There was nowhere to take cover.

"Is there a shelter there?
A house to take cover?"

All these things,
a child who doesn't live here

doesn't have to take
these things into account at all.

Get away from there.

Hey, hey.

Move back.

Let us deal with this.

Clear out

"Color Red"

Color Red, clear out!

"Color Red"

"Color Red"
"Color Red"

The trauma of the sirens
affects everyone.

Children wet the bed again,
parents are hysterical,

kindergarten teachers
try to find creative ways

to tell the youngsters
what the fuss is all about.

"Color Red"

Children singing:
"Hurry, hurry, hurry to a secure place..."

"Hurry, hurry, because
now it's a little dangerous..."

"My heart is pounding,
boom, boom, boom, boom."

"My body is trembling,
doom, doom, doom, doom."

"But I can handle it
because I've learned..."

"a m*ssile lands, boom..."

"Now we can get up..."

"We shake out our bodies..."

Some citizens, especially
those who could afford it,

started leaving Sderot.

They said, "What do I need this for?"

Some Sderot residents have given up
after years under fire.

Today we filmed this family,
who asked to remain anonymous,

leaving town for good.

Due to this gloomy situation
I decided, sadly, to move somewhere else

because I was born here
and I'm used to living here.

The Abitbouls, Nissim, Nurit
and their three children,

no longer believe that peace
will ever come to Sderot.

For years they've faced
a dilemma:

Their children's safety
versus their love of Sderot,

the town where Nurit and the kids
were born and raised.

This morning they packed up
and moved to Ashkelon.

You see the fear
in your children's eyes,

my daughter won't go
to the bathroom alone.

Even if I'm in the living room
she won't sit in the dining room alone.

This is what it's come to.

That's it. We're fed up.

The Abitbouls aren't alone.

Many families have decided
to leave everything behind

and flee the horror
of the Qassams.

Anyone who can leave is leaving.

And many, many young people
are leaving.

They're leaving,
you'd be surprised.

It used to be because of the economic,
social and cultural situation here.

Now it's because of the Qassams.

But most Sderot residents
stayed in Sderot because Sderot is home

and there is no place like home,

and you don't leave home
when things get rough.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv,
Gold's desk piled up

with proposals for new
anti-rocket systems.

Maybe from one of them
a solution will come to Sderot?

We received about 24 ideas. These weren't
just ideas you dream...

Lots of solutions,
some of them exotic.

I worked with an IDF-supported team
on every aspect:

intelligence, control, monitoring,
attack, you name it,

and I realized the answer
was interception.

Interception means the m*ssile hits the Qassam
while it's still in the sky

and brings it down.

The company Rafael proposed
this solution. They called it, "The Sunfish."

After I decided to go for it,

I didn't have official approval
for the project, or money, either.

So I decided what I'd do.

head of research and development, I'm authoriz
to invest in research and development.

took $7 million
and said to Rafael,

"Join me on this journey.

You match my $7 million.
We'll have $14 million.

We won't do it overnight.

Give me time, I'll raise the money."

While Gold tried to raise money,

Jabari continued to attack,
not only Sderot,

but southern Gaza neighborhoods as well,
neighborhoods that used to be inside Gaza

and were easy prey.

No less tfian'16 mortar shells were fired
at neighborhoods in southern Gaza this morning.

One shell landed near
the synagogue in Kfar Darom.

A resident who was standing nearby
was severely wounded by shrapnel.

Four residents of Neve Dekalim
were wounded by mortar fire this afternoon.

Two of them, including an 8-year-old boy,
are in critical condition.

A fatal incident in Gaza,

one soldier was k*lled
and six wounded, two severely,

by a barrage of mortar fire
on an IDF outpost south of Morag.

What sparked this round of aggressions
in southern Gaza

was the death of a Hamas activist
last night.

The Palestinians claim
he was k*lled by IDF fire.

This is exactly the reason for

the mortar barrages on southern Gaza.

IDF troops strike Hamas, but the Israelis
of southern Gaza are suffering badly.

At a 6:45 this morning,
during breakfast,

a powerful blast shook the home of
Shunam Halevi in Neve Dekalim.

An Al-Batar m*ssile
fired from Khan Yunes

struck the roof directly,
causing massive damage.

Chief of Southern Command Dan Harel,
who came to the damaged house,

heard the locals' complaints

concerning the ongoing Qassam fire
on southern Gaza neighborhoods.

This is my house,
I have nowhere to go.

Following the Defense Minister'
orders from early this week,

the IDF reinforced its forces
in Beit Hanoun

and took up positions
near the Jabaliya refugee camp,

an act that halted the Qassam fire,
at least temporarily.

We know it isn't a perfect solution.

We think it will significantly curtail
the m*ssile fire.

Even today we've set them back.

we work directly,

every time we receive intelligence

on lathes or factories building Qassams,

we move in

and go to the house or neighborhood
where the Qassam factory is located

and destroy everything we find.

But the IDF's attacks
often ran into trouble.

24 hours after the second APC disaster
and here's what Philadephi Road looks like:

dozens of soldiers looking for
body parts of their five buddies.

More and more soldiers k*lled.
It was intolerable,

leading Prime Minister Arik Sharon
to surprise us all,

by advancing a plan he'd been
cooking up for several years:

withdrawing the IDF from Gaza, and evacuating
all the Jewish neighborhoods there.

If, several months from now,

the Palestinians continue to refuse to fulfill
their part in the Roadmap for Peace plan,

Israel will implement a unilateral
disengagement from the Palestinians.

The Disengagement Plan
frightened the citizens of Sderot.

How can we leave Hamas there
on its own?

Without the IDF there,
nothing, will stop them from firing at us.

The Israelis in southern Gaza
had no intention of giving up.

Give in to terrorism?

The Israeli government put them there.

What's next, withdraw from Sderot, too?

The demonstrations were orange and painful, an
friends from Sderot joined in.

One day Ella came to me and said,
"Dad, they're making a chain of protest

from southern Gaza to Jerusalem."

So I said, "Ella, do you know
where southern Gaza is?

Do you know where Jerusalem is?

They'll never make it!"

She said,

"Dad, I don't believe
that Jews should be expelled

and I'm going to take part
in the protest."

When she came back I said,
"We saw the line,

Did the cameramen ask you
to crowd together so it would reach?"

She said, "No, Dad.

There were enough people
to make another chain."

Everyone should think of his Jewish heart

and remember that you
cannot evict a brother from his home!

Despite all the demonstrations,
Arik Sharon didn't budge a millimeter.

Some said it was because he was
under investigation, accused of corruption,

maybe he was pretending to be a dove
to avoid prison,

and some thought he had
an ace up his sleeve,

that he knew what he was doing.

Now even the most cynical leftists

mbraced Sharon and believed in the fundament
change he'd undergone.

Sharon is turning his back on the settlers

and handing them a divorce.

You have one weakness,

you've developed a Messiah complex.

Jabari saw the withdrawal as an opportunity.
He wanted to chalk up a point for himself,

for the Gazans to think the Israelis
were fleeing because of the Qassams.

And while the Israelis dreamt of peace,
the Qassams came harder and stronger.

That Saturday about 30 Qassams
had fallen in Sderot by noon.

And Ella put on

her movement shirt

and said, "I'm going to an activity."

We said, "What activity?
Who goes out on a day like this?"

And Tamir, too.
I said, "Where are you taking Tamir?

He's only 11.

She said, "Don't worry,
I'll take care of him."

On Saturday night, after prayers,
we come back home,

we go inside, we want to do
the end of Shabbat...

when ssuddenly an expl*si*n
rocks the whole house...

My wife immediately screams,
"It's Ella and Tamir."

I run to the main street

and see a crowd of people.

I run into the crowd

asking, "Who? What happened?"

What happened?

Everyone says, "A girl was wounded,
we don't know who she is."

I pushed the people out of the way,
got to Ella, I see her laying there.

I look at her, she seems fine.

Her eyes are open,
she looks at me,

I call her and she doesn't answer,

then I say, "Hold on, where's Tamir?"

Where'd he go?

Where'd he go?

Then someone brought
Tamir over to me

and I see hiis head is bleed

but he's standing, looking, walking,

saying, "Ella, Ella, Ella."

I'm getting in with her.

He's her father...

Follow him.
I want to see how my daughter's doing.

Follow him.
-You with the camera, move.

We pick Ella up

and then we see the mortal wound
to her brain stem.

It didn't show when she was
lying on her back.

Apparently when the siren sounded
the second time she had a feeling

and she felt responsible for Tamir.
She called him,

Tamir turned to her, she leapt onto him,
knocked him to the ground, lay down on him,

and unfortunately the Qassam
landed near them

and Ella was mortally wounded.
She was unconscious the whole week,

from the moment
she was wounded.

And that Friday she died.

Instead of a wedding dress, shrouds.

instead of National Service,
national mourning.

Instead of a Saturday of singing,

a Saturday of lamentations.

But death, Qassams and demonstrations
didn't change the prime minister's mind.

In August 2005, the betrayed residents
of southern Gaza were torn from their houses.

Gaza was left bereft of Jews.

From the sea to the border,

no Jews, no Israeli residents,
certainly no soldiers.

Now the Palestinians
must prove themselves.

They must fight the t*rror1st organizations,
dismantle their infrastructures

and show sincere intentions to make peace.

To an extended hand
we'll respond with an olive branch

but to fire we'll respond
with more brutal fire than ever.

That's one of the most
painful things.

I think Israel reached its height
of stupidity then.

It was one of the most
dramatic moves ever made

and it was in vain.
We gained nothing. Why?

You want to withdraw?
Demand a price for it.

Demand a price.

Everyone in Israel hoped that

if the Palestinians
didn't extend a hand in peace

at least they'd build new lives
and leave us alone with quiet.

We see them celebrating,

they seem to be...

Hamas boasts that it pushed us out,
not the Palestinian Authority,

and I see that Hamas
is going to take over Gaza.

Gaza is turning into Hamastan.

It's the armed organizations'
finest hour.

They claim that it was these weapons
that got Israel out of Gaza.

This is their chance to show them off.

For Hamas it was a great victory,

especially since Hamas could tell
the Palestinians, to the people,

the whole Palestinian populace,

that it made Israel withdraw
from Gaza unilaterally

with nothing gained
and no conditions.

This gave Hamas the right to say

that Israel only understands force,

meaning: You attack them,
they give you something,

you don't attack them,
they give you nothing.

After the withdrawal,
there was quiet.

it lasted two weeks.

There was an expl*si*n during
a Hamas parade,

20 people died, and Hamas decided
it was the IDF is to blame.

Who gets punished when
the IDF is at fault?

Sderot, as always.

Seven people were wounded
that night

and everyone realized
that nothing had changed

and the withdrawal
was no solution.

Sharon launched an operation, as he promised.
He called it: "Operation First Rain."

If the Qassams don't stop falling in Israel,

Gaza will receive a rainstorm of metal.

In response to this weekend's
barrage of Qassams,

Israel launched five attacks
on Gaza.

After a long hiatus, the Gaza streets
are empty at night again.

For example, this school
in Shejaiya was bombed.

Israel claims that it was used
as a Hamas school.

All the students could do

was remove the books from the rubble.

Do you understand why they're here
and what they're doing?

Yes.
-What?

Retaliating for the Qassams.

Against whom?

Gaza.

Does it help?
-Yes.

No.

People actually thought that,
after the withdrawal and Sharon's threats,

he'd go wild and destroy Gaza,

but it didn't happen.

Just then, Gold from the Defense Ministry,
eived from Rafael sketches for a technical soluti

not a political solution,

that could actually protect Sderot.

I went up the hierarchy ladder
to the big brass for approval

and their answer was basically "no."

Nobody thought it would work.

Not the leaders and generals
and experts,

including in the Defense Ministry
and the IDF,

not the industries, not abroad,
not in Europe, not in the States,

nobody thought it would work.

They said, "Here he is again
with some massive project

that'll take 15, 20 years, billions
of dollars, and nothing will come of it."

Gold neardy gave wp

but then began an unexpected
chain of events

likely to change the situation
for us all.

The Prime Minister was rushed
by ambulance to the hospital.

According to the first
official announcement:

The Prime Minister's condition is worse
than thought originally.

In March 2006,
Sharon was hospitalized

following a stroke

without leaving instructions on
what to do about Gaza.

So new elections took place.

At 10 a.m., Amir Peretz entered
the voting booth in his hometown of Sderot,

aware of the political importance
of the hour.

Some people say I'm not me.

To tens of thousands of
party members in the South,

Amir Peretz is the hope for
a new national agenda.

Amir Peretz, former mayor of Sderot,

won top spot in the Labor Party

and led it to Knesset elections.

People who'd never voted for the Labor Party,

suddenly for Amir, plugged their noses
and voted Labor.

Peretz won lots of mandates
and joined the administration of Olmert,

Sharon's replacement
in the Kadima party.

Everyone was sure he'd be
minister of finance.

A socially oriented finance minister
who cares.

Naturally I thought I should be
finance minister,

naturally it was my main demand

of Ehud Olmert.

But Ehud Olmert insisted

that the finance minister
come from his party, Kadima,

and I was faced with a choice:

either stand in the way
of a centrist-leftist government

and not be part of the coalition,

or compromise and be the
defense minister.

Anyone who saw the damage caused
by the Qassam rocket this morning

at the AMIT school in Sderot

found it hard to describe
the miracle.

The Qassam penetrated the unreinforced
roof of the building,

as well as the wall dividing
the classroom from the restroom.

The high school isn't far

from the home of
Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

e don't intend to compromise with
those firing the Qassams.

In Sderot they expect him, as one who
experiences the fear along with them,

to bring a halt
to the Qassam rockets.

Sderot anticipated good things.

Finally, instead of some
out-of-touch general,

a defense minister who runs to the shelters
along with the people of Sderot,

whose children are growing up there.
Someone who understands.

Someone they can trust.

I found myself in a period
fraught with incidents.

After two months as defense minister,
Gilad Shalit was abducted.

This morning, in an incident
in southern Gaza,

Corporal Gilad Shalit
was wounded and abducted.

The IDF's main concern
is for the wellbeing of Gilad,

the abducted soldier.

I had to respond in kind and launch
extensive military operations in Gaza.

For the first time I allowed
the IDF to enter the Gaza Strip.

This was after the withdrawal.

A few weeks later,
the Second Lebanon w*r broke out.

Hello. This is a special news bulletin
following developments on the northern border.

Fire on settlements on the northern border
began an hour ago.

Casualties have been
evacuated to the hospital.

The incident began
about 45 minutes ago

with mortar and possibly also
anti-tank m*ssile fire

aimed at IDF posts and troops
on the northern border.

Residents of the northern border
were just instructed

to’go info shelters
and secure rooms

out of fear of escalation.

At least nine dead
in this incident

and many more wounded,
including mortally wounded.

We'll just tell our viewers

that these are live images
from the site of the attack.

e were hit by a barrage
this morning.

We'd received warnings
and we informed the residents

to expect heavy barrages
beginning at 9 a.m.

Oh, no...

Two k*lled by m*ssile fire
on Haifa

in the Katyusha barrage
at 10:55.

We're checking reports of rockets landing
in other places such as Tiberias.

Missiles are going beyond Haifa
for the first time.

We're talking about Hadera,
Pardes Hanna...

July 2006, the Second Lebanon w*r.

Rockets landing everywhere, 24/7,
not only in the South,

and there's nothing to protect the citizens

from the ongoing fear.

Yet in the hearts of the people
of Sderot, there was hope as well.

Maybe now that everyone
is being affected

everyone will pitch in
and solve the problem

that's turned the sky
into a mortal danger.

We see the cars burni

as a result of the Katyusha fire
close nearby.

chaiforA barrage of missiles just after 5:00,
the sirens didn't go off,

a direct hit on an apartment building
in Haifa...