Amanda Rivkin

Sderot: Before Gaza War

SDEROT, ISRAEL. The aftermath of an exploded Qassam rocket on the street in Sderot on May 29, 2008.
  
SDEROT, ISRAEL. A young man plays pool at the Keren Or recreation center in Sderot, an Israeli town of 25,000 on May 29, 2008. Local residents say the town has been hit by a regular barage that ranges from the constant to the sporadic the previous eight years and have built recreational and community centers like Keren Or to withstand the blast of Qassam rocket fire.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Qassam debris stored behind the Sderot police station collected from the town of Sderot and surrounding towns after being fired from the Gaza Strip behind the Sderot police station on May 29, 2008. A police man points to a sticker attached to a Qassam rocket before it was fired that reads in Hebrew "Quds," the Arabic name of Jerusalem and a type of rocket used by Palestinian Islamic Jihad; such debris is collected in part so that it can be showcased to journalists and others that visit the area.
     
  
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Liz Abutbul and her fiance (left) and a customer at a hair salon a few doors down from a business hit by a Qassam rocket a few months prior in downtown Sderot, an Israeli town of 25,000 a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip that has been the regular target of Qassam rocket fire, on May 28, 2008. Small business owners in Sderot are frequently forced to shudder their businesses if the barrage of Qassams become too much, keeping customers away.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Resident Mimi Peretz points to her ceiling on May 29, 2008 which was torn by a Qassam rocket that landed on her apartment.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Moshav Aaronson, an Uzbekh immigrant to Sderot, a town of 25,000 a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip that local residents say has been hit by a steady barrage of Qassam rockets for the last eight years, in his living room beneath portraits of his father, mother and grandfather taken in Uzbekhistan on May 29, 2008. Aaronson's kitchen was hit by shrapnel from a Qassam rocket which exploded outside his window.
     
  
SDEROT, ISRAEL. A man sleeps in a blast shelter behind the movie theater during the Cinema of the South Film Festival on June 5, 2008.
   
NEAR NIR AM, ISRAEL. Erez Winshtat, the chief instructor at the Global Anti Terror School and a lieutenant colonel reservist in the Israeli army trains private security officers at the Naby Marei shooting range 300 meters from the Gaza Strip on the Israel-Gaza border and 3 kilometers from the nearby town of Sderot, an Israeli town of 25,000 a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip that local residents say has been hit by Qassam rockets for the last eight years, on May 28, 2008.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Tents assembled the week before the Sderot film festival on May 29, 2008.
     
  
SDEROT, ISRAEL. A protective shelter on May 29, 2008.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. The Cinema of the South Film Festival outdoor garden on June 4, 2008.
   
NEAR NIR AM, ISRAEL. A private security officer fires his weapon from a moving vehicle at a target at the Naby Marei shooting range 300 meters from the Gaza Strip and 3 kilometers from the nearby town of Sderot, an Israeli town of 25,000 a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip local residents say has been hit by a steady barrage of Qassam rockets for the last eight years, on May 28, 2008.
     
  
NEAR NIR AM, ISRAEL. Private security officers reloading their weapons at the Naby Marei shooting range 300 meters from the Gaza Strip and 3 kilometers from the nearby town of Sderot, an Israeli town of 25,000 a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip that local residents say has been hit by a steady barage of Qassam rockets fired from within Gaza for the last eight years, on May 28, 2008.
   
SDEROT, ISRAEL. Eshay Ederi, 6, leaves to catch the bus to school on May 30, 2008.