The Evacuees

Abstract

Most of this book focuses on groups of Israelis who may have been frightened during the Gulf War, but sustained no losses or injuries. This chapter looks at the war’s only direct casualties: the people who were evacuated from their homes following Scud strikes. These people suffered various degrees of injury to their persons and property. Some came out with bruises and scratches and with minor damage to their homes—broken windows and doors that could be easily replaced, cracked walls that needed little more than plaster and paint to put them right. Others, fewer, were trapped under the rubble of fallen ceilings and/or lost their homes and most of their worldly goods. One person was killed, leaving his son and 51-year-old wife to start life anew without him, without their home, and with barely a memento of their life as a whole family (Kedem, 1991a).