The Buchris family had no warning that a rocket was about to strike the family home in Sderot. No Red Alert siren gave the family 15 seconds to get to a safe room and no Iron Dome missile knocked the rocket off track.

What they did have was “screaming, shock and blood. A lot of blood,” Aharon Buchris said from his hospital bed. “The living room disappeared.”

The rocket – one of more than 170 projectiles fired from Gaza over three days – sent shrapnel and pieces of broken glass shooting like bullets in every direction.

Aharon and his two daughters ages 14 and 15 remain hospitalized with shrapnel injuries. Aharon, the most seriously injured, underwent surgery to remove pieces of glass from his face and legs. The girls also suffered wounds to their heads and legs. Reymond was also treated for injuries but was released from the hospital.

Israel responded with aerial strikes on 40 strategic targets in Gaza. Terrorists continue to send burning kites and balloons into Israel causing fires near the border area.

When Aharon and the girls are ready to leave the hospital, they have no home to return to. Reymond has been staying with her sister in Sderot. The structure was completely destroyed. Aharon is a retired IDF officer and his wife Reymond was not working at the time of the attack.

OneFamily has reached out to the Buchris family with financial and emotional assistance. We are at their side through their recovery and continue to be there through the rehabilitation process.  We will be with the family as long as they need us so that they never feel alone.

The Trauma That Doesn’t End

For residents of the south, every barrage of rockets builds on the trauma that has been building for the past two decades. Every offensive brings new waves of panic.

“It might be quiet for a time, and they could go out without fear, and then suddenly, they are back in their state of trauma,” explained social worker Mindee Levinger.

“In this situation, you never know when you wake up in the morning what you are waking up to,” she said. “You don’t know if you are going to suddenly have to run with fear to a shelter, frantically searching for all your children, not knowing what is happening to those who are out of the house at any given time.

“They have no strength for this anymore. It’s unbearable. You don’t know when it’s going to end. They can’t give themselves the chance to believe that something is really going to change,” she said.

What does strengthen them, she added, is the confidence that Israel will ultimately overcome this threat and not surrender to the terrorists.

In the meantime, they rely on the government to deter the terrorists and protect them with the Iron Dome defense shield.

They need OneFamily more than ever for the times when rockets break through the Israeli defenses.