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Sderot
Hebrew	שדרות
Name Meaning	Boulevards
Founded in	1953
Government	City (from 1996)
Also Spelled	Sederot (officially)
District	South
Population	20,000 (2004)
Jurisdiction	5,000 dunams (5 km²)
Mayor	Eli Moyal

Sderot (Hebrew: שדרות‎) is a city in the Southern District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2004 the city had a total population of 20,000.

Contents 1 History 2 Demographics 3 Income 4 Education 5 City under attack 6 Famous residents 7 References

Sderot was founded in 1953 as a transit camp for Kurdish and Persian Jews, and the first houses were built in 1954. In the 1950s, the city absorbed a large number of immigrants from Morocco and Romania, and was declared a local council in 1958. In the 1990s Sderot again absorbed a large immigrant population from the former USSR, and doubled its population in this decade. In 1996 it was declared a city.

According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was 99.8% Jewish and other non-Arabs, without significant Arab population. See Population groups in Israel.

According to CBS, in 2001 there were 9,500 males and 9,700 females. The population of the city was spread out with 36.5% 19 years of age or younger, 16.2% between 20 and 29, 19.6% between 30 and 44, 14.3% from 45 to 59, 3.8% from 60 to 64, and 9.5% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2004 was 0.7%.

According to CBS, as of 2000, in the city there were 6,301 salaried workers and 367 are self-employed. The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker in the city is ILS 3,845, a real change of 9.0% over the course of 2000. Salaried males have a mean monthly wage of ILS 4,911 (a real change of 11.3%) versus ILS 2,665 for females (a real change of 2.4%). The mean income for the self-employed is 5,378. There are 603 people who receive unemployment benefits and 3,183 people who receive an income guarantee.

According to CBS, there are 14 schools and 3,578 students in the city. They are spread out as 11 elementary schools and 2,099 elementary school students, and 6 high schools and 1,479 high school students. 56.5% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001. Nonetheless, a 17 years old citizen of the city, Moshe Lavi, was selected by the Israeli National Committee of the UWC organization, which aims to promote cultural understanding and educate the "leaders of the tomorrow", to be one of its representatives in the international colleges. The young student was sent to represent Israel and the city of Sederot, in the Norwegian college of the organization, Red Cross Nordic UWC, and he will attend the college between the years 2005-2007.

Sderot lies a kilometre from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada in October 2000, the city has been frequently bombed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants using ballistic rockets known as "Qassam rockets". While very inaccurate, these attacks have resulted in several deaths and injuries, as well as in psychologic distress among the residents and in negative immigration from the city. The Israeli government has installed a "Red Dawn" alarm system in an attempt to alert Israelis to possible shellings, though there are doubts concerning its effectiveness. Hundreds of Qassam rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip since Israel's disengagement from Gaza in September 2005.
On June 18, 2006, Sderot's municipal council announced it would seal off the city's entrance for a 24-hour period in protest of continuing Qassam rocket attacks^[1]
On June 20, 2006, The Sderot municipality shut the city down in protest at the continuing barrage of Qassam rockets from Gaza that have struck the area. All inner-city junctions were shut down for an indefinite period of time and the city would be blacked-out from 9 p.m. onwards. Hunger strikers in Sderot ended their nine-day protest on June 19 at the request of President Moshe Katsav, who was touring the Qassam-struck southern city. Katsav said that the ongoing rocket attacks in the aftermath of Israel's disengagement from Gaza left Israel with no option other than a military response.
The June 2006 shelling of Gaza by the IDF, which claimed the lives of the intended targets: two senior members of the Palestinian group, the Popular Resistance Committee, was regarded as Israel's response to the on-going rocket attacks on Sderot. The Popular Resistance Committee is a dissident group within the Fatah movement and has fired hundreds of Qassam rockets into Sderot throughout 2006, failing to follow in the footsteps of Hamas's unilaterally declared ceasefire in March 2005. Since the shelling of Gaza by Israel in June 2006 and Israel assassination of Jamal Abu Samhadana in 2006, Hamas has apparently supported and assisted the Popular Resistance Committee's shelling campaign of Sderot, which escalated towards the end of June 2006. On Sunday 25 June 2006, 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, an IDF guard on the Gaza Israeli border, was taken hostage in an attack which killed two other IDF members. In a joint statement, Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committee claimed responsibility. On Monday 26 June 2006, tensions arose when the IDF lined up along the parts of the Gaza-Israeli border, seemingly with the intention of launching some sort of combined attack - rescue mission.

On July 7, 2006, two Qassam rockets fired from Gaza hit the city. One of the Qassams fell in the city's central market, wounding seven civilians. Three people were hit by shrapnel from the rocket, while four were in shock. The second rocket landed in an empty soccer field. Three of the wounded were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital.

On November 15, 2006, Islamic Jihad and militants associated with Hamas fired fifteen Qassam rockets from Gaza into the Western Negev, eleven of which landed in Sderot, killing a 57-year old woman, Faina Sloutsker, and seriously wounding several people, among whom were a bodyguard of Amir Peretz^[2] and a 17-year old boy.^[3] Notably, this was the first Qassam-inflicted fatality of 2006.

Possibly the most famous person to come out of Sderot is the current Chairman of the Labor Party and the Defense Minister of the State of Israel, Amir Peretz. Since the dovish politician entered office, he has decried the constant Qassam attacks on his hometown.

1. ^ Haaretz: Sderot shutdown strike postponed as Katsav pays solidarity visit, June 20, 2006
2. ^ Haaretz: Qassam attacks kill one, wound two in Sderot; IDF: No magic bullet, November 16, 2006
3. ^ Haaretz: 3 Qassams hit Negev; local schools to stay closed, November 16, 2006

Coordinates: 31°31′N, 34°35′E

South District
Cities	Arad · Ashdod · Ashkelon · Beersheba · Dimona · Eilat · Kiryat Gat · Kiryat Mal'akhi · Netivot · Ofakim · Rahat · Sderot
Local councils	Ar'ara BaNegev · Hura · Kuseife · Lakiya · Lehavim · Meitar · Mitzpe Ramon · Omer · Segev Shalom · Tel Sheva · Yeruham
Regional councils	Abu Basma · Be'er Tuvia · Bnei Shimon · Central Arava · Eshkol · Hevel Eilot · Hof Ashkelon · Lachish · Merchavim · Ramat Negev · Sdot Negev (Azata) · Sha'ar HaNegev · Shafir · Tamar · Yoav