Sderot
Sderot
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| Hebrew transcription(s) | ||
| • ISO 259 | Śderot | |
Public bomb shelter, Sderot
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 Sderot
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| Coordinates: 31°31′22″N 34°35′43″E / 31.52278°N 34.59528°ECoordinates: 31°31′22″N 34°35′43″E / 31.52278°N 34.59528°E | ||
| District | Southern | |
| Founded | 1951 | |
| Government | ||
| • Type | City (from 1996) | |
| • Mayor | Alon Davidi | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 4,472 dunams (4.472 km2 or 1.727 sq mi) | |
| Population (2015) | ||
| • Total | 23,090 | |
| Name meaning | Boulevards/avenues | |
Sderot (Hebrew: שְׂדֵרוֹת, Hebrew pronunciation: [sdeˈʁot], lit. Boulevards) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In 2015 it had a population of 23,090.
Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the closest point is 840 m), and has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip since 2001; rocket attacks on the city have killed 13 Israelis[update], wounded dozens, caused millions of dollars in damage and profoundly disrupted daily life. Studies have found that air raid sirens and explosions have caused severe psychological trauma in some residents. At least 75 percent of children aged 4–18 in Sderot suffer from post-traumatic stress, including sleeping disorders and severe anxiety. From mid-June 2007 to mid-February 2008, 771 rockets and 857 mortar bombs were fired at Sderot and the western Negev, an average of three or four each a day. Notable for its many bomb shelters some of which are built in the form of Children's Play areas in school playgrounds, Sderot is infamously referred to as The "Bomb Shelter Capital of the World."
Sderot was founded in 1951 on lands that belonged to the Palestinian Arab village of Najd who were expelled to Gaza, and is located a few miles south of the village's ruins. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by the Negev Brigade as part of Operation Barak, and the villagers were driven out to Gaza. It began as a transit camp called Gabim Dorot for Kurdish and Persian Jewish immigrants, numbering 80 families, as part of a chain of settlements designed to block infiltration from Gaza. Permanent housing was completed, three years later, in 1954. From the mid-1950s Moroccan Jews increasingly settled in the township. In 1956, Sderot was recognized as a local council.
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