The complex reality that exists in Israel for almost a yearof a war on several fronts with the various members of what Israel calls the “Axis of evil” (Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis) and led by Iran, does not stop the country whose central characteristic is a great drive in the midst of adversity, but which undoubtedly influences the feelings of the people.
According to the criteria of
And the unprecedented attack launched on Tuesday by Tehran with 181 ballistic missiles It keeps adding worry.
Especially because it was a unique day in which the maximum alert was announced by the Civil Defense Command and then alarms began to sound everywhere. “They rang three or four times”commented Merav, a woman in her 50s in Tel Aviv. “What is certain is that we ran to the shelter several times. Luckily we were close, but nerves are not easy at all.”
During the night of the Iranian attack, almost the entire territory of Israel heard the alarms, from north to south, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the surrounding metropolitan areas, known as Gush Dan.
When the alarms ring in the center, everyone becomes desperate, but we have been living this situation for a year, without ceasing.
“When the alarms ring in the center, everyone gets desperate, but we have been living this situation for a year, without ceasing,” comments Salomón Vilensky, general director of the Dalton Industrial Park in the Galilee, located five kilometers away, with a critical tone. from the border with Lebanon where alerts sound practically every day due to rocket launches by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
But Iran is something else.
Although the country has been dealing with this situation for a long time and the threats have been multiple both from Gaza, with Hamas, and in Lebanon, with Hezbollah, knowing that there is a massive attack from Iran on the way and that in a matter of minutes many missiles can hit the ground does not leave anyone calm. Nor now, when it is still unknown what the Israeli response will be to that attack and the effects that this could trigger.
The fear of an impact exists. It would be illogical for people to ignore it. But at the same time, what considerably affects the general feeling and gives a certain calm to the population is the unique anti-aircraft defense system that Israel has, unique in the world, with very high interception rates.
It is composed of several layers. The best known is the Iron Domeactivated more than anything by launches from Lebanon or the Gaza Strip. But there are also David’s Slingshot and Arrow (or Jetz in Hebrew). They are all interconnected and the system’s brain decides in fractions of seconds which one to activate, depending on the height and distance from which the threat is on its way. That is to say, of the type of missile that comes through the air.
In the case of the Iranian attack, the centerpiece was the Arrow system that intercepted a large part of the missiles.
Israelis feel really protected by this system and that gives them great peace of mind. But the authorities of the Civil Defense command repeatedly try to emphasize that the system is really excellent, but it is not airtight. Therefore, it is imperative to follow the instructions “because they save lives.” And here the other components of the protective system come into play: the alarms detonated by the missiles, which alert the population, and the shelters. This, closely hand in hand with the discipline of the population.
“You don’t play with this, you have to enter the best shelter you have and stay there for ten minutes, since fragments of the intercepted missile may fall to the ground,” says Lieutenant Colonel Guili Shenar of the Civil Defense Command repeatedly. explaining to citizens the importance of acting responsibly.
You don’t play with this, you have to enter the best shelter you have and stay there for ten minutes, since fragments of the intercepted missile may fall to the ground.
And there have been numerous cases of civilians who said that when they heard the alarms they ran with their families to the shelter and seconds later they heard the roar. When they came out, minutes later, they saw everything destroyed around them.
There is another element that comes into play and has a great impact on how each citizen and each family deals with the situation: what type of shelter is nearby.
“We are lucky to live in a new building, so the shelter is in the house and of course it is the children’s room, to avoid having to wake them up if alarms go off when they are already in their beds,” says Shlomo, father of two small children. It refers to what is known in Hebrew as “mamád,” an acronym that means “departmental protected space.” Since 1992, a year after the first missile attack towards the Israeli rear by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, every new building or house that is built, by law, must include that armored piece. Otherwise, you do not have construction authorization.
But there are many people who live in older buildings erected before that obligation came into effect. And here it depends on what the possibilities of each one are. Normally, all buildings have community shelters. There are also many others arranged throughout the territory. If you can reach one of them within a minute and a half when the alarms sound, it is already something considered a “luxury.” However, when they fire a rocket from Lebanon or Gaza, in most places there is only 15 seconds to protect yourself. It all depends on where the projectile was launched.
People know: the best is the armored room, then the shelter in the building. Always, the instruction is to take shelter in the innermost room of the house, away from tiles and windows, lie down on the floor and cover your head with your hands. And if you are traveling, stop the car, get away from it, lie on the ground with your hands on your head and wait ten minutes.
A notable element is that, on the one hand, people would like to see the end of the war on all fronts, and on the other, many consider that it is imperative to deal hard blows to the armed groups that attack Israel in its various forms. borders, and also to Iran, in the hope that this will convince them not to fire missiles into Israeli territory.
Meanwhile, concern and nervousness will continue to combine with pride in anti-aircraft defense.
But while the country is getting ready for a possible conflict scenario with Iran, the truth is that Israel is still experiencing the trauma of the attack. October 7, 2023in which thousands of Hamas militiamen launched a raid and took the lives of 1,200 people and kidnapped others 250 more.
We can’t stop fighting for them, we have little time left
That morning of Saturday, October 7, Hamas managed to create an especially traumatic situation for Israel. In several civilian communities, the militiamen kidnapped some 250 people. Among them were several dozen minors, including children and a baby less than nine months old. Also elderly, men and women. They were torn from their homes, in many cases still wearing pajamas, barefoot and in the midst of horror. Nothing is still known about many of them.
“This is a long, endless night and a nightmare,” is a repeated comment from the relatives of the kidnapped, who not only do not know when or how they will return, but are certain that their loved ones are in good condition. especially difficult.
At this moment there are almost a hundred in Gazaof which it is presumed that some 33 are dead.
All the families of the kidnapped have now been living with anguish and worry for almost a year, although not all of them face the fight in the same way. There are those who go out to demonstrate in the streets protesting against the governmentaccusing him of having missed important opportunities to reach an agreement with Hamas, and there are those who consider that this is harmful because it minimizes the Islamist group’s guilt.
And now, when Israel intensified the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the fear of the relatives is that this will definitively forget the kidnapped people. “We can’t stop fighting for them, we have little time left,” he says. Einat Zangauker , whose son Matan is still kidnapped.
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