When The Bomb Shelter Becomes Your Home — Amizur Nachshoni
Nati Sharvit spends his days killing time, standing over his baby’s cot in the bleached light of an Israeli missile shelter. If he takes the risk of walking outside, the consequences could be disastrous.
He and his family are constantly threatened by Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket assaults from the Gaza Strip, which is only 12 miles (19 kilometers) from their home in the Israeli seaside city of Ashkelon. Sharvit, his wife, and his four children have no more control over the air war raging above their heads than Palestinian residents on the other side of the Israeli military barrier separating northern Gaza from southern Israel. They can only wait and hope for a return to some semblance of normalcy.
“We’ve been in this predicament for nearly two decades. I’m not sure how long it will take,” Amizur Nachshoni spoke with Sharvit, who is 30 years old. “We don’t leave the shelter, we just play here to pass the time and hope everything works out.”
All new residences in Israel are required to have a fortified “safe” chamber, whereas older structures do not. When the red alert sirens ring, Moshe Lutati, 44, hides his eight children under the staircase because their third-floor flat in Ashkelon lacks a protected room.
“There is no place to flee to. We can’t put eight children in a neglected shelter because it’s far away and run down “he stated.
After widespread Palestinian fury over impending evictions of families from East Jerusalem and Israeli police skirmishes with worshippers near Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, Hamas, the Islamist group that administers Gaza, launched the current round of rocket assaults on Monday. According to Gaza medical officials, 215 Palestinians have been killed, including 61 children, and over 1,400 others have been injured. According to Israeli police, 12 individuals have been slain in Israel, two of whom are minors.
Israel says it will keep bombing Gaza with air and artillery assaults as long as it takes to destroy Hamas military sites and murder its leaders. Despite the heavy bombardment, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Konrikus stated on Tuesday that Hamas and other armed groups possessed thousands of missiles and mortars.
“Degrading all of those rockets and intercepting or otherwise destroying them is really difficult. He described them as “very spread.”
While Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts the bulk of rockets thrown into Israeli territory, “if 120 rockets, or more than 50–60 rockets are fired at such inhabited areas, there will still be a percentage of rockets that will make their way through,” Israeli police spokesperson Mic Rosenfeld said. That was why it was “extremely vital” for Israelis to be cautious and retreat to their safe zones, he warned. Residents of cities like Ashkelon, on the other hand, are simply looking for a break after more than a week of Gaza’s most intense bombing ever.
“We want a safe haven and for this war to end,” Jacqueline Mashiach-Segal remarked. “There is no longer any area that is safe. We can’t visit Tel Aviv? We can’t travel to Ashdod? So, should I flee my own house?”
