Sderot mayor says state will pay for hotel stays, calls on residents to evacuate

The mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi, announced on Sunday that the state will finance hotel stays and hospitality for the residents of Sderot for at least the next week. "We will continue to act both with concern for the residents of the city who remained and for the residents who left it, and at the same time to raise additional resources for the continued stay outside the city during the war," said Davidi.

"This is not a time to be in Sderot," Davidi said in an interview with Channel 12. "We want there to be a great victory over Hamas and Jihad." 

The implication, that a major military operation in Gaza would endanger those remaining in Sderot, is well founded: in addition to constant sirens since Hamas's initial attack last Saturday, the city experienced a direct impact on Sunday when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck a resident's home. 

Sderot residents say this time is different

Residents, who have experienced many rockets and conflicts with Hamas in years past, said this time was different.

Shmuel Moyal, who has lived in Sderot for 60 years, said: "Our health is good, but our hearts are not with us. We are used to a bleak situation, but now it is extremely bleak. We hope that security will return, not the security that existed until now, but the security of 20 years ago."

As for the future, Moyal will return to Sderot "if the IDF does a good plowing and there's no more Hamas." This is not the time, he said, to "return at any cost."