Zikim

As I wrote in the last post, we went south last weekend.

In Kibbutz Zikim we were warmly welcomed by the families that we hosted last summer during the war. 

We toured their Kibbutz and I noticed mostly all those safe-room-cubicles that were added by the Government to each house/ apartment to give shelter from rockets. The other shelters near parking places, playgrounds etc. in case the alarm sounds and people have merely a few seconds to reach a shelter.

The kids daycares are fortified with concrete structures that cover the original buildings.

We visited an Arabic house that is one of the two left from the area before 1948 from people that had to flee. They renovate the house now with it's beautiful paintings and floors. (Unfortunately I was without camera)

From there you can see Gaza and the suburbs. The border to Gaza is less than 3km away. 

On the 8^th of June last summer, terrorists from Gaza tried to infiltrate Zikim by swimming and getting on land on the beach near Zikim.

I know the stories of how the families experienced this day/ night and I can hardly imagine how terrified they must have felt.

On Saturday we went for a wonderful walk along a stream/ lake that stretches from the Shikma-reserve to the beach. At this time of the year the area is full of flowers.

The kids had a lot of fun playing at the beach and they were not very disturbed by the cold wind and water…

In the distance you can see the silouhette of Gaza