I have been working in Sderot, Israel, for nearly three years. I have witnessed the intolerable lifestyle that Sderot and western Negev residents have been forced to endure under the constant reality of rocket attacks from northern Gaza. Indeed during this third cease-fire with Hamas, I have had the opportunity to see what Sderot life is like behind the headlines.

Copyright 2010 Bangor Daily News

While many people may be under the assumption that life is back to normal in Sderot, thanks to certain statistics reported by the media— real estate having gone up 20 percent to 30 percent, 1,400 new homes approved for construction and families returning — these facts do not reveal the entire story of life for rocket-ravaged residents.

I recently visited Hila Barzilai, the new director of the Sderot Resilience Center, who told me that in the months after Operation Cast Lead, hundreds of Sderot children have turned to the resilience center for therapy treatment.

“These kids come to us with their parents to seek therapy for the trauma built up from years of rocket attacks,” said Barzilai. “These problems did not just begin post-Operation Cast Lead. We are talking about eight years of constant rocket attacks whose psychological effects are now emerging during this period of calm.”

More than 364 new patients arrived to the resilience center six months after Operation Cast Lead, according to Barzilai.

The average recovery period for a child can take up to eight months or more, said Barzilai. One of the challenges trauma patients face in the recovery process is the sporadic rocket attacks that continue to hit Sderot and the western Negev region.

Barzilai noted that “it takes one rocket attack to destroy any progress in the patient’s therapy. The siren alert will trigger the flashbacks of terror and fear in the child or adult, which means that the therapy process has to begin anew.”

The more than 20 Gaza rockets fired in early January 2010 bought a new wave of trauma patients to the center, according to Barzilai, who also stated that this was the resilience center’s final year of operation due to budget constraints.

Barzilai is not the only health professional in Sderot who has seen a sharp increase in the number of patients suffering from health issues during the calm.

A visit to Orna Hurwitz, the director of the Sderot Bon Tone Hearing Institute, revealed that Sderot residents are also suffering from internal injuries left from years of rocket attacks. Hurwitz explained that hearing loss has become an ailment unique to Sderot and Gaza-border residents.

“The hearing impairments suffered by residents of Sderot are akin to the hearing loss that soldiers experience during war. The repeated blasts of the rocket explosions harm the eardrum to the point that many residents have to be treated for hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus and-or central auditory processing disorders,” Hurwitz said.

“Many of these victims do not seek out treatment for such internal injuries immediately. After a rocket attack, the first things that are treated are the physical injuries and the shock. Many victims therefore fail to realize that their hearing may have also been impaired.

“It is during the calm and quiet during this third cease-fire with Hamas — that residents are discovering that they have been injured in other ways.”

The cost for the treatment is another reason why Sderot residents do not get the necessary assistance. According to Horowitz, many low-income residents simply do not have the budget to purchase a hearing aid, which can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000, or to seek more professional care.

Horowitz said that although the city appears to be returning to some semblance of normalcy, “the beautiful new parks and playgrounds do nothing to address the real health issues of residents.

“Hearing loss among my patients has led to loss of jobs, depression and strained family ties. It’s a never-ending battle that I see Sderot residents struggle with in my office every day.”

Anav Silverman, a graduate of Calais High School, is a freelance journalist and Middle East commentator based in Jerusalem and Sderot, Israel. She works part-time as an English educator at the Hebrew University Secondary School of Jerusalem.