What happens in Israel?

"Cold" talked with the inhabitants who woke up from missile strikes

On the morning of October 7, Hamas attacked Israel. The militants not only fired at the cities, but also entered the territory of the country, capturing hostages: their exact number is still unknown, but it can be dozens or hundreds of Israelis - both military and civilian. Both sides call what is happening to the war - Israel makes a response to the territory of the gas sector. On both sides, thousands of victims are reported - both Israelis and Palestinians. About what is happening in the country now, the “cold” asked residents of different cities of Israel.

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Leon Minkin, 50 years old "I woke up from the sound of a siren"

I live in the village of Bnei Aysh in the south of Israel, this is about 45 kilometers from the border with the gas sector. Today I woke up at 06:30 in the morning-from the sound of the siren-and immediately ran with the family members to the bomb shelter.

The houses that were built in Israel after 1991 are equipped with special rooms with fortified thick walls and a small window, which is closed on the outside with iron shutters (so that the glass does not hurt people in case of a rocket). Such a bomb shelter can be an ordinary room in an apartment, for example, a bedroom, or a common room for the residents of the floor.

In our bomb shelter, we sat for several hours. The south of Israel is now firing at the most intensively, the sirens of air alarms were triggered for about every 5-10 minutes. Explosions were also heard when the missiles fell somewhere near our house, and the operation of the air defense system was heard-in Israel it was called the "Iron Dome". But due to the fact that too much missiles were released, the “dome” could not cope with them all, there are many hits into civilian objects.

One of the missiles fell to the parking lot of new cars next to our house. A fire broke out, black smoke rose to about the eighth floor high. Several dozen cars burned down. Another rocket hit a residential building, so far we do not know how many victims there are.

I moved to Israel at 17-from St. Petersburg. He graduated here, served in the army, married. The wife is also from St. Petersburg. We had two children, a son and a daughter here, they have already graduated from school and served in the army. Today, the daughter spent the night with friends in the north of Israel: there the situation is slightly calmer, rockets almost do not reach there. And the son was at home with me and my wife. At some point, electricity was gone with us, later we read that the rocket was in the power line located next to our house. There is still no electricity, already about six hours. Technique is already starting to sit down.

For the first time in the last 50 years, the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu announced the beginning of the war, and not a separate military operation, as happened before. He also announced the emergency start of mobilization. In Israel, almost all citizens who served in the army are in stock, as far as I know, up to 42 years. I have already come out of this age, and my daughter and my son can be called up to the service. The children of our friends and neighbors have already been called.

I hope that Israel can give a clear answer to Hamas and show its strength, otherwise it is impossible.

Ivan Kvasov, 51 years "The monstrous failure of Israeli intelligence"

I moved to Israel last year - after the full -scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine. I live in Jerusalem, but yesterday I spent the night with a friend in a small village in the suburbs.

At first, through a dream, I heard the siren and then I did not understand anything yet, and soon I heard a loud sound of the explosion. Then I finally woke up, my friend and I spread a couple of phrases and immediately climbed to read the news. It turned out that for several hours, Hamas struck Israel missile strikes, but since Jerusalem is away from the border, we even managed to sleep for several hours while sheltered the south of the country.

My friend’s house is private, old, there is no bomb shelter there. There is nowhere to run, you will not go out into the street during air alarm. Therefore, we just sat at home and waited for the siren to end, and then my friend took me by car to Jerusalem, and went to work. He should have had a day off today, but he works on television and ran to illuminate what was happening.

In fact, today is in Israel Shabbat: it is celebrated from sunset on Friday until the sun by Sabbath. At this time, shops do not work, public transport does not go, and people are traditionally gathering families or large companies with friends. And besides, now there is also a double holiday: Smini Azerset and Simhat Torah ( the first holiday is dedicated to the end of the agricultural season, the second - to read the main sacred book of Judaism of the Torah. - Approx. "Cold" ). In Jerusalem now quite calmly, as on any Saturday: there is no one on the streets, complete silence. The only difference is that everyone is sitting in phones: they correspond with friends, colleagues and relatives from different ends of the country. Israel is a small country, but still in different cities a different situation.

What happened is the monstrous failure of Israeli intelligence and the failure of the army, since it could not immediately reflect a breakthrough in the south of the country. The Israeli army can occupy the gas sector, but this can lead to large losses. But not to react to the attack is bad, then Hamas will continue, react - to break into the gas sector, to occupy it again, as it was already in the past, it is also bad. There is no good way out of this situation.

Dmitry Abzgauz, 51 years “Iron Dome” knocks down rockets right above our heads ”

I moved to Israel from Russia in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and settled in the very south of the country - from my village to the border with the gas sector seven kilometers. Missile fires, shooting from small arms or mortars here became a routine. We do not panic when something happens, so today we reacted quite calmly to what was happening.

We had no sirens, we woke up from the sounds of flying missiles and the work of our air defense, which knocked them down. Our village is in such a place that the Iron Dome knocks down rockets right above our heads.

My family lives in a two -story house in which there is no bomb shelter. When the shelling goes, we are hiding under the stairs, because this is the only place without windows. When they end, we return to our usual affairs and contact our relatives and acquaintances. Here are the former classmates of the son who live in the neighboring village, write that there are still fighting there.

The military forbade the inhabitants of our and, as far as I know, the nearest villages, to leave the house. This is due to the fact that Hamas militants flicked into the territory of Israel. This happened for the first time in very many years. We literally heard machine gun shootings somewhere nearby with our ears. Of course, we will not go outside - now it is too dangerous: you can get a bullet either from these "Barmaley" or from our own.

About 400 families live in our village - we all know each other in the face. Many men have the right to carry weapons, and they are already self -organized to protect the village. It is protected by a rather high fence, and our neighbors, who volunteered, will control the streets. Perhaps we are soon evacuated because we are very close to the border.

For the nine years that I have been living here, such as today, has never happened. The point is not only that there was a missile shelling: the main thing is that the militants of Hamas broke into the territory of Israel. As far as I know, in the reime forest, which is on the border with the Gaza Strip, on the night of Friday to Saturday, the NATURE PARTY music festival was held. About a thousand people participated in it, mainly young people. On the night of Friday to Saturday, they rackled there, and early in the morning the militants broke into the festival in the morning, someone took the hostages, one of them was able to run away to the nearest villages, someone is hiding right now in mandarin trees.

I think that Israel, of course, will beat this attack, simply because Hamas militants are not able to withstand Israel’s regular army. But the question is that there will be many victims: both among the military and among the inhabitants of Gaza.