Not enough ‘safe areas’ for residents, schoolchildren, deputy mayor says.
By BEN HARTMANBeersheba cityscape_311(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Conditions in Beersheba during the current onslaught of Gazan rockets are unbearable and made worse by the shortage of protected areas in the city’s school, Deputy Mayor Dr. Heftsi Zohar said on Saturday.“Most of the schools in Beersheba don’t have enough shelters or safe areas, so we have decided to cancel classes for tomorrow [Sunday]. Most have secure spaces, but not enough,” Zohar said.She added that she doesn’t know of any government plans to build more bomb shelters in the city.Zohar said that commercial areas would stay open, but that “life does not go on as normal even though this is our regular life these days, unfortunately.”She said the situation in Beersheba is unbearable, and that the rockets “affect the lives of over 100,000 citizens, especially children, who are living under terror.”Click here for special JPost coverageShe appealed to the government to increase the construction of safe rooms and bomb shelters, and to increase coverage from the Iron Dome anti-rocket system for the Beersheba area.When asked if she is calling for the army to send ground forces into the Gaza Strip, Zohar said she is confident that “the IDF knows what needs to be done to affect quiet.”The IDF Home Front Command along with the heads of a number of local authorities in the South gave the order on Saturday night to cancel school in all communities located between 7 km. and 40 km. from the Gaza Strip.The closure applies to Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gedera, Rahat, Yavne, Lakiya and the Gan Yavne Regional Council.Schools in the western Negev that are within 7 km.of the Gaza Strip will hold classes as usual, as their buildings have the necessary reinforcement to protect them against rockets.
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