Most of Sderot's residents don't see the point. "What can the soldiers do if a rocket falls, catch it? They're going to wind up getting hurt," Yaffa Malka, one of the city's residents, told Ynet.
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter visited Sderot's Shikmim Maoz elementary school Monday and tried to reassure the anxious parents. Sadly, he could not offer them any guarantees. All he could do was listen.
The schools rules are clear to both parents and pupils: The road leading from the fortified room to the school's exit remains clear at all times and no pupil is ever to stand at the gate, waiting for a ride.
When it's time to go home, the pupils are to run from the secure room directly to the bus. Those waiting for their parents to pick them up stay put. No one is allowed outside.
Ruth Swissa, whose daughter is a first grader in the school, could not hold back her tears when she spoke to Dichter: "I lost all confidence in this country. I'm here because I have no other choice… what are you doing? What is the government doing? How can we go on living like this?"
Dichter had no real answers. He, like his fellow ministers it seemed, does not really know what to do.