Nicole Jansezian reports

Observation post on border between Southern Israel and Gaza

Under the pall of continuous rocket fire from Palestinian militants for eight years now, business production has been severely hampered, psychological problems have sharply increased and uncertainty has gripped residents in the region of southern Israel along the Gaza border.

Rocket and mortars have fallen unchecked resulting in 50 percent of the region's residents being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder while the cause of the stress is still anything but "post."

"There is no way to continue like this. We are going to lose the whole Negev. We are losing the future," said Yankela Cohen of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.

Three years ago this month, Israel uprooted 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, ostensibly to ease friction with the Palestinians. Instead, since the August 2005 withdrawal, more than 5,000 rockets and mortars have landed in southern Israel and already in the first six months of this year, 1,075 rockets and 1,204 mortars were fired across the border.

At Nahal Oz Kibbutz where Cohen is the agricultural manager, 10 percent of the land can no longer be cultivated because it is in sniper range and pesticide planes are prohibited within 1.5 miles of the Gaza border. But, Cohen said, "our main problem right now is to convince workers to go out in the fields."

Hamas, the terrorist organisation controlling the Gaza Strip, had agreed to a truce in June, but frequently violated it firing dozens of rockets and mortar shells at communities in southern Israel. According to several security estimates Hamas has also spent the time to replenish its arsenal: more than 10 million bullets, thousands of machine guns, 175 tons of high-grade explosives and a number of precision guided anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

While deaths and injuries have been relatively few due to the inaccuracy of the rockets, the trauma has been scathingly efficient. Parents grapple with whether to let their children play outside, or sometimes, even whether to go to school. The Israel Center for Victims of Terror and War estimates that up to 94 percent of Sderot children between 4 and 18 years old exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Losses are also beginning to take a toll on business and not due just to damaging rockets, but from the interrupted work day.

Yankela Cohen

"There is an alarm five to 10 times a day," said Ronnie Levine, vice president of marketing for Erez Industries, a textile and plastic manufacturer at Kibbutz Erez. "The workers leave the machine, run outside for shelter and when they come back, either the machine is not working," or, as Levine explained, the employees spend time calling their family members to check on their wellbeing.

The Red Alert system gives a 15-second warning to southern Israeli residents when a rocket has been launched at their vicinity. The alert goes off sometimes five times an hour.

"Fifteen seconds before you called there was a siren," Dina Gelfand said in an interview during the "truce."

Gelfand is a pastor of a small Messianic congregation in the rocket-battered city where up to 20 believers meet in an apartment. Sirens many times interrupt their meetings, so they pray for God's protection and quote Psalm 91.

"We have peace in our hearts," Gelfand said. "For people who don't believe in Yeshua, the situation here is too hard to deal with."

Despite the hostilities, however, one of the congregation's prayer priorities is for the Palestinians of Gaza.

"There will be no peace if there is no peace in Gaza," Gelfand said. "They are also suffering, and suffering from worse things than we are."

The congregation's apartment suffered a direct hit by a rocket, but was not destroyed and no one was hurt. But Gelfand, 33, has no plans to leave Sderot. She immigrated to Israel from Latvia in 1999 and feels at home in southern Israel. She said it is difficult to openly share the Gospel in the city, but the congregation helps the community where it can in practical ways and prays with families. Most of all, they are a light: People see their peace.

"They think we're crazy, they think that fear is logical and that you need to be afraid and that you need to be stressed," Gelfand said. "But I know that God watches over me. God is alive, God is almighty. If we believe in this, there is peace and faith."