Sderot-Ashkelon train line resumes operations for first time since October 7 attack
Gaza border city was one of the hardest hit by Hamas-led terrorists, with at least 50 civilians and 20 police killed; vital train line reopens after IDF constructs defensive wall
The Sderot-Ashkelon train line in the south of Israel resumed operations Sunday morning, for the first time since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack rocked Sderot, a city near the Gaza border.
With the approval of the Defense Ministry, trains will now operate between 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday.
“The IDF considers the train a vital, strategic national infrastructure, and a central part of the western Negev’s rehabilitation,” the military said in its announcement of the line’s approval last month. “Therefore, no expense has been spared to allow its return in the best and most secure fashion.”
The IDF said it had prepared for the Sderot-Ashkelon line to reopen by deploying new technologies, physical defenses and surveillance capabilities.
The Sderot train station was shuttered in May 2023 due to security concerns, and its reopening was delayed after it sustained rocket damage during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
When the station reopened last March, amid the gradual return of evacuated residents, northbound lines were not renewed due to their proximity to Gaza and frequent Hamas rocket fire.
Economic daily The Marker reported late last month that the Planning Authority, which oversees land development in Israel, had authorized the Defense Ministry to construct a two-part cement wall that would offer protection to vulnerable parts of the Ashkelon-Sderot line. The project was said to cost an estimated NIS 40 million ($11.2 million).
The plan reportedly passed despite the opposition of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who, the report said, wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June that “the real meaning of such an investment is defeat in the war” in Gaza — ostensibly because it represented a defensive mindset and admission that rocket fire may continue.
The southern city of Sderot was one of the locations hit hardest by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel’s south to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
During their rampage, terrorists attacked the Sderot police station, which became the scene of heavy battles between Hamas and the station’s police officers. The building was ultimately completely destroyed. At least 50 civilians and 20 police officers were killed in Sderot on October 7.
Following Hamas’s attack, the IDF evacuated communities along the Gazan border, including Sderot. The residents were cleared to return to the town in February 2024.
