Our guide, Eliyahu, who designed this tour and who met us at the Ashkelon train station. The train ride here from Tel Aviv was about an hour. People taking the tour from other Israeli cities also met us here. We were 14 in all from all over the world. I was the only American.

We had a bit of a holdup at the train station as the bus waiting for us had only seats for 12. We needed a larger bus but the man in charge of the buses' mother had died that morning and he was at her funeral. In the Muslim religion, death and burial are usually on the same day. We did get a bigger bus and drove to the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.

This is the Israeli crossing, part of it looking like an airport terminal.

The other part looks like a prison. There is another crossing to allow in trucks, about 500 a day.

The only way to get into Gaza is that you live there or sometimes if you are a part of a relief organization. You can see from the photos that it is pouring outside. Inside the covering were people from Gaza who had permits that are required by both Hamas in Gaza and Israel to cross the border into Israel. Before Hamas got in power in Gaza in 2006, this border was an open one. Our tour guide told us that both Israel and Hamas blackmail the permit holders--Israel: we want you to spy on your neighbor; Gaza: we want you to find out something for us while you are in Israel.

The Gaza people were construction workers, going to a hospital, or merchants. They were all waiting for Arab cab drivers to pick them up. The man on the right talked us the most of the Gaza people. He is a merchant who travels to China to pick up merchandise. He has to fly out of Jordan. We could ask many questions: Do you have enough food to eat? Yes. Do you have medical care. Yes. Etc. To return to Gaza, permit holders have to go through three checkpoints: Israel, PLO, and Hamas.

Some of my tour group with a true gentleman holding an umbrella for the ladies.

From the border we drove to the moshav Netiv Ha Asara, which means "the path of ten" in memoriam to the 10 sons of the moshav who died defending the area. We were told that it is the closest settlement to the Gaza border. A moshav is an agricultural cooperative and is different from a kibbutz.

On the way to a meeting room was a collection of the rockets that Gaza has shot at them. Gaza also has been sending balloons and kites over the border with incendiary devices attached to them. Many fields has been burned by them.

We watched a movie made by one of the moshav's residents about what life was like living so close to the Gaza border. I would say absolutely nerve-wracking.

A Path to Peace Wall near the moshav I believe was created by the woman in the movie. Photo: some photos of it.

Mosaics are pasted on the Path to Peace Wall. You can buy some of the designs as magnets. We also picked out free mosaics to place on the wall later.

Close-up.

Leaving Moshav Netiv. Its houses are mostly big, and with their stucco and tiled roofs, you are reminded of developments in Orange County, California, but each house has a bomb shelter. When a rocket is approaching, a siren goes off and they have about 15 seconds to get into the safe room.

Close-up of a house. You can see that there are no windows facing the Gaza Strip.

We drove to the Path to Peace Wall.

The walls were built to stop mortar attacks from reaching the moshav.

A view of the border wall in the distance.

Part of the Path to Peace Wall.

More of the Path to Peace Wall.

More of the Path to Peace Wall.

Close-up of the mosaics.

Closer-up. Our guide put glue on the mosaics that we selected and we pasted them on the wall. You write a message on the back of the mosaic. I wrote "Good Luck." My tour guide liked it.

Two big buses of Israeli soldiers arrived at the wall.

And they certainly enjoyed having their photos taken with us tourists. There is military conscription for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18. For males, about 3 years. For females, about 2 years. Arab citizens are not conscripted or are some religious people.

I think this might be a colorful bomb shelter.

Close-up.

Other than walls, for protection from Gaza artillery, dirt berms are formed. We saw one big berm protecting cows. The berm in the photo is to protect cars on the highway.

On the road. Every bus stop has its own bomb shelter. Many of them are decorated.

The side of a bomb shelter.

Another bomb shelter.

Our lunch was at a kibbutz in a communal dining room.

My lunch--the hot dogs were delicious! There were other choices as well.

On the road, passing a parking lot for tanks.

We could see Gaza City from here. This is also the area where the weekly Friday Great March of the Return is held when Palestinians in Gaza protest to demand of the end of the Israeli blockcade of Gaza and for the right of return to their ancestral homes from which they expelled in 1948 by Israel. Israeli snipers have opened fire on these protesters.

A view of Gaza City.

Another view of Gaza City.

A closer-up view.

Here, Eliyahu had a phone conversation on the microphone with a journalist and his friend, both inside Gaza. They said they felt like virtual prisoners in Gaza, not being able to leave for higher education or most medical needs. They bemoaned Israel not letting them have their own ports, etc. If they felt all would be better if they got rid of Hamas, I'm sure they wouldn't say so on an open cell phone line.

Back on the road: The Armistic House for peace between Egypt and Israel at the end of the War of Independence in 1948. Here discussions of the armistice were held and a final agreement was signed on January 6, 1949, in Rhodes by Israel, Egypt, and the UN.

We drove by a new Israeli deterrant to prevent Gaza insurgents from entering Israel via tunnels. Millions of these rods are being inserted in the ground.

A stop at the Asaf Siboni Lookout. Asaf Siboni was killed when his helicopter crashed into another helicopter in 1997, known as the Helicopter Disaster, which killed 73 Israeli soldiers. The large rock in the photo is for Iris Eden who lost her first husband in that crash and her second husband when his vehicle was hit by a Hamas anti-tank missile. She said that "The two loves of my life went up in flames."

More of the lookout.

Twenty wind flutes representing the 20 years of Asaf Siboni's life.

A view of Gaza City in the distance.

Closer-up.

Closer-up.

Closer-up.

Israeli land.

Passing another decorated bus stop bomb shelter.

Entering the Israeli city of Sderot, population about 25,000, only 1 km (0.62 miles) from the Gaza Strip. Lots of bomb shelters here.

Display of rockets that have hit Sderot.

Closer-up.

We visited the Yeshiva of Sderot.

Here, students study the Talmud and the Torah and are exempt from military service as long as they are studying.

On the top of the yeshiva, a Chanukah Menorah made of spent spells of rockets.

A view of Sderot. It was dark when we went to the area where the Iron Dome Air Defense System is located on the edge of Sderot. We were told that only missles that could hit buildings are shot down. We left our tour guide in Sderot, were driven to the train station, and caught the train back to Tel Aviv.