"I have three kids. Two of them are being treated for trauma. Whenever I hear a rocket hit near the house I’m filled with rage. Let me go into Gaza. I'll tear the place apart with my bare hands," Kfir Cohen, a resident living in Sderot told CGTN

Sderot along Gaza’s border is a predominantly working class town characterized by rundown, cinder block style apartment buildings on one end of town and two-floor villas with views across agricultural field of the Gaza Strip less than a kilometer away.

For the past 19 years residents of Sderot have lived "under fire" with an average 1000 rockets and mortars per year fired from Gaza onto Israel since 2001. Despite three major military campaigns, Sderot remains a frontline in Israel’s back and forth war with Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups controlling Gaza.

Only Bibi - who else is there?

The security situation for Sderot remains static. There’s no foreseeable solution or an end in sight to the “Gaza situation” despite reassurances from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Skepticism and doubt is a normal outgrowth of the status quo - Netanyahu - sometimes referred to by his nickname "Bibi" - has been in office for a decade. But when elections roll around, nearly half of Sderot’s residents vote Likud - Netanyahu’s political party - in a bid to keep the prime minister in place.

"Who else would we vote for? There’s no-one. Only Bibi. He’s a brand. People all over the world know who he is and what he’s done. Why would we vote for anyone else? It would be like switching a Lamborghini for a Fiat Uno." Cohen stressed.

Economic uptick and the the iron dome

Against the security odds, Sderot is experiencing a construction boom and five percent economic growth per year - both attributed to Bibi. After years of fleeing Sderot, Israelis are relocating to the border city. The population stands at 25,000. 

Analysts point to the Iron Dome Defense system, operational in Sderot since 2011, as a turning point marker of restored confidence. The Iron Dome intercepts rockets at a 90 percent success rate - one of the biggest reasons people are willing to endure the trauma and set up house in the development town.  

Voting Likud is part tradition – "my grandfather and father voted Likud. I vote Likud. It’s what we do," one Sderot resident told CGTN. It is also borne of distrust. 

"Most of the people living in Sderot are from Arab countries," Israel Democracy Institute analyst Ofer Kenig tells CGTN. "They don’t trust left parties who are perceived as playing a role in keeping them from successfully integrating into Israeli society." 

"Likud speaks our language," Cohen also said. 

But the dialect isn’t native to all Sderot residents. 

"I was born and raised here," Sima told CGTN. "The security situation hasn’t changed. I always voted Likud but not anymore. We need solutions - not promises."