It took over seven years, but the Foreign Ministry on Sunday opened up an office in the rocket – plagued city of Sderot so as better to coordinate foreign news coverage and facilitate fact-finding and solidarity missions of the city and other Gaza envelope communities under fire from the Gaza Strip.

“It took us a while to get the fax machine here today and the phone line hooked up, six or so years too late, but better late than never,” Hannan Godar, one of two Foreign Ministry officials who will be manning the office told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. The two officials, public diplomacy and media experts, who do not live in Sderot, will work in shifts during “normal times” – when there is no major barrage of the city – and will receive reinforcements during times of greater violence. The office, housed in the Peretz Bonei Hanagev complex is not fortified against Kassam rockets. “I’ve been advised not to close the office window completely so that if it shatters the glass won’t go flying everywhere,” Godar said.

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