WATCH: Airstrikes Seen from Empty Town of Sderot, Israel; Ruins of Police Station Firefight

SDEROT, Israel — This southern town of some 30,000 people is known for being on the front line of Palestinian rocket fire for two decades. But today, it is nearly completely empty for another reason: it is on the front lines of war.

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

Sderot was one of more than a dozen communities targeted by Palestinian Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. They set up roadblocks and ambushed civilian drivers, murdering them in the streets, dragging their bodies from they cars, and looting their vehicles. 

A group of terrorists took over the city’s police station, where they engaged in a 20-hour firefight with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) special forces. In the end, the IDF destroyed the station, killing the ten or so terrorists who had holed up inside. 

Today, two-and-a-half weeks later, the spent ammunition still litters the sidewalk. Hamas 7.62 AK-47 rounds are intermingled with the IDF’s 5.56 NATO rounds, amid broken glass and debris. Cars parked nearby sit with windows shattered, abandoned by their owners.

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

Ofir Akunis, Israel’s minister of innovation, science, and technology told reporters that there would be a NIS 100 million ($25 million) fund to encourage high-tech industries to invest in the area in the aftermath of the war. 

But that could be weeks, or months, away. And it depends on victory. Amichai Chikli, the minister of Diaspora affairs, said that the war that had been forced upon Israel was an “opportunity to reshape the security situation in the south.” 

He added: “We have no intention to go back to a reality where we have to listen to “red alerts” and run into bomb shelters every six months.”

Emmanuel Nachshon, deputy director general for public diplomacy at Israel’s foreign ministry, tells reporters that the coal of the war is to “destroy” Hamas.

And they are here to film the effort.

On the edge of town, reporters line a ridge overlooking northern Gaza, watching the IDF conduct airstrikes. Smoke billows from distant buildings; loud bombs are heard, and TV reporters in flak jackets chatter excitedly as they narrate the scene.

Back down the road, all is quiet. Playgrounds are silent; roundabouts are empty. Stray cats prowl the sidewalks, perhaps wondering where everyone has gone.

As remote and desolate as Sderot is, it remains connected with the rest of Israel, and with Jewish communities around the world, who have suffered a wave of antisemitism. Many Jews in the western world have stayed home from school, or work, in recent weeks, due to threats from Hamas, and radical pro-Palestinian marches in the streets.

Chikli, standing in Sderot, has a message for them: “When we win this war, the reality will change in the streets of Paris and London.” 

With victory — and nothing less — life will come back to Sderot, and fear will recede for Jews in other towns, in Israel and beyond.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.