Israeli reconstruction near Gaza lacks a key building block: Trust
The paint is not yet dry and a large outdoor sign has yet to be hung at the newly expanded facilities of BionicHIVE, a warehouse-automation startup.
The company is part of an upstart tech hub in this southern Israeli city, just minutes from the northeast border of the Gaza Strip.
Like the rest of Sderot and nearby farms and kibbutzim, BionicHIVE was hit hard when Hamas fighters poured across the border Oct. 7, killing 50 Sderot residents and abducting others, destroying infrastructure, and leaving an emptied region in their wake.
Half the company’s 30 employees and their families evacuated the area and scattered around Israel. About a third were called to reserve duty to join the war effort.
But now in BionicHIVE’s test lab, a smiling orange-and-black robot named SqUID is back to plying the tracks along towering storage
