ARI SHAPIRO, Host:
And now to Be'er Sheva. It's the largest city in southern Israel, home to almost 200,000 Israelis. Unlike Israeli towns closer to the Gaza border that regularly endure rocket fire, the last time Be'er Sheva was hit by rockets was more than 40 years ago, during the Six-Day War. Shlomi Kodesh is the deputy director of the Soroka Medical Center. I asked him whether the attacks took people by surprise.
SHLOMI KODESH: We received notice on Saturday from the army's homeland front that we might be attacked. It was still quite a shock to see it actually happen.
SHAPIRO: Can you describe what took place?
KODESH: On Tuesday evening, firing sounded at night across the entire region. And we were later notified that there were some rockets that hit Be'er Sheva. At that point, the hospital was set at a much heightened alert level where we had to clear out wards and patients. And we were also receiving quite a large number of acute stress related patients coming into the hospital. They'd come in on stretchers unable to talk, unable to walk as a result of the fear and as a result of stress of hearing rockets landing very close to where they live.
SHAPIRO: What's the mood like particularly for people who have not experienced a rocket attack before? The last one was more than 40 years ago.
KODESH: People adapted surprisingly fast. The mood is very serious. People are very concerned for their loved ones. And still people carry on with their life.
SHAPIRO: Do you see people leaving the area, moving northward to be out of range?
KODESH: Very few, although we have noticed a decrease in the number of births in our hospital. Expecting mothers have apparently chosen to go north and have their children, which is fairly understandable.
SHAPIRO: Well, now that the citizens of Be'er Sheva know they are within firing range, are people doing things differently to prepare?
KODESH: Yes, people are staying closer to homes, as per army instructions. We have a one-minute notice sent and a siren sounds to the time we have to be in a protected environment. So, people don't stay out in open spaces too long. Schools and kindergartens are out. So we all have to find solutions for where our children will spend the day while we're working.
SHAPIRO: How has your family coped with that? Do you have a small child?
KODESH: We have three children. Our two daughters are 10 and eight and a three-year-old boy. The first night the siren sounded, the girls both got out of bed. We had a family drill prepared in advance to what would happen if a siren sounded. They knew exactly what to do. They were both quite shocked and very surprised, but knew what to do.
SHAPIRO: What is the hospital doing to prepare for any potential future attacks?
KODESH: This is a very unique situation. We do have preparedness plans for mass casualty events, be it terrorist or natural disasters. But this is unique to us because we're under attack ourselves potentially. This means we had to close about 15 percent of our hospital beds that were located in buildings that aren't defendable. No one's on vacation. All vacations were cancelled. We do not perform complicated surgery to make sure we have enough ORs and intensive care unit beds available. Still, most of the hospital still operates normally.
SHAPIRO: Now, I understand Israeli troops have been massing and there's speculation about a potential ground incursion into Gaza. Are people talking about that where you are?
KODESH: It's a significant part of our hospital preparedness level. We're the closest tertiary care center to the Gaza Strip. I have to prepare for the eventuality that this attack will take place and we might have many casualties to care for.
SHAPIRO: What kind of notice will you get if something like that is about to happen?
KODESH: For security reasons, none. We were notified of the attack last Saturday in Gaza as it took place. So we probably knew about five minutes before the press, but that's all the head warning we got.
SHAPIRO: Shlomi Kodesh is the deputy director of the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. Thank you.
KODESH: Thank you.