"They just waited for the train"

The Israelis spent the evening of Tuesday, reading news about the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv and hiding from Iranian missiles. Novyevropa talked with residents of different cities

In recent days, the northern parts of Israel were mainly subjected to shelling by Lebanon. But in the evening of October 1, the residents of the center received a notification of the rear service about the upcoming attack from Iran. Soon, sirens sounded in most of the country, and the Israelis proceeded into shelters (in new houses, it is usually a protected room right in the apartment, in the old ones - a basement or, at worst, stairworm).

Shortly before the first reports of shelling, a serious terrorist attack occurred in the city of Jaffa (southern border with Tel Aviv). Two armed men entered the tram car at the station and opened fire. Then they went out and continued to shoot at civilians on the street. Seven people became victims. Terrorists are identified as Ahmed halaf Saher Rajab and Hassan Mohammed Hassan Tamimi, the inhabitants of Hevron on the western bank of the Jordan River. Patrol officers shot the attackers on the spot. The witness of the incident helped them - Leo Kreitman. On October 7, 2023, he already helped save the wounded participants in the Nova music festival. Israeli police called the names of six dead in the attack: 42-year-old Georgian citizen Ilya Nosadze, 24-year-old revision Bronstein, 33-year-old Inbar Segev Vigdar, 40-year-old repatriate from Moldova Nadia Sokolenko, 30-year-old Shahar Goldman and 26-year-old Greece citizen Yonas Crosis, who studied, who studied, who studied, who studied. In Tel Aviv. Inbar Segev Vigdar at the time of the attack protected her nine -month -old child with the body: he was not injured. The murdered Nadia Sokolenko had a six -year -old daughter. The new newspaper Europe has learned from residents of different cities in Israel how they survived the tragic evening.

"This stop, where the attack occurred, is located right under my window"

Sveta, photographer, Jaffa

-Somewhere at five o’clock in the evening, when I left work, the first reports appeared that the Iranian attack on Israel was preparing. They immediately began to talk about this in the news, with the urgent message was the representative of the IDF. But several times we were promised an Iranian attack, and in the previous times nothing was reached us, it was shot down on the approach. Therefore, we reacted quite skeptical of these next statements. But somewhere in an hour and a half, everything began to change rapidly.

I met with friends in a bar in the Tel Aviva area near Jaffa. Only we comfortably sat down in one of the local institutions, they began to drink wine, when suddenly I began to call and write all my friends and friends. I immediately open the news and see that in front of my house there was a terrorist attack. In telegram channels, they wrote that people leave the streets, because the terrorists have not yet been caught. Soon there was a message that terrorists were eliminated, after which the order of the rear service immediately followed: everyone should go into a safe space.

My friends and I were in complete bewilderment. No one understood where to go, where to run, where to hide, whether to go home, or we no longer have time to get to him and we need to look for a shelter nearby.

Although the terrorists have already been caught, I could not return home, knowing that I would be bad from the consequences of the attack. I decided to go to a friend, but as soon as I sat on a bicycle, I howled a siren. I was lucky, I drove past a very large bomb shelter, and ran into it.

There was already a bunch of people with dogs and children. Everyone retained a fairly cheerful mood. Someone sang New Year's songs, because tonight we begin the Jewish New Year, someone laughed, someone drank beer. But the Sirens responded, and we heard how they knock down rockets above us. After that, everyone began to leave the shelter, but the sirens howled again. I was shaking, but not even because of sirens, but because of the attack: because we know that we have a good missile defense, but we have not come up with anything so effective against such terrorist attacks.

This morning I went to the tram stop where the attack occurred. She is located right under my window. There people brought flowers, put candles. Broken glass, trace of a bullet. And it is written on paper glued under this next from the bullet: "They just waited for the train."

"During the second attack, I was hiding in a drain pipe"

Leah, new repatriate, Tel Aviv

-We moved with a 13-year-old daughter to Israel in May. Of course, I understood in what situation the country was, but the decision was balanced. True, it is one thing to be prepared theoretically, another is to encounter the situation live. I was at home yesterday, my Hebrew classes were transferred to the zoom due to the warning of the rear service about the upcoming attack. The daughter at this time walked with friends away from home. When she was about to return, the trams no longer went. It became clear that the attack would happen in the near future. Therefore, I told my daughter to go to the shopping center and wait for me there. And she got into the car, hoping that I had time to at least get to her.

As a result, I found myself in the most unsuccessful place when the attack began: on the central highway in Tel Aviv, in the car. There was nowhere to hide. At the first siren I got out of the car, lay down behind the fence, covering my head. Then she went to the congress from the highway with a jerk. During the second attack, it hid in a drain pipe - it was worse because the missiles were knocked closely. By the third series, I managed to get to the building with a normal shelter. All this time I tried to contact my daughter.

When everything subsided, I reached her and took home. Of course, she was scared and cried a little. But in the shelter in the shopping center, she made friends with the girls: they sang together, told each other something, even took a photo together. I did not have a big panic, but I think the next time to make sure that all loved ones are next to the shelter. But at the same time there is a feeling that the Israeli army is doing everything to save you, and because of this it is easier. You recall statistics: usually less than 1% of the issued missiles are damaged. It comforts.

In addition to the attack, there was a terrorist attack at the station closest to us. So it’s very good that the daughter could not take the train and remained in a protected place. When we returned home and discussed all this, she was first worried not because of the missiles, but because of the attack, because she rightly argues that how to defend herself from the attack is clear, and the attack is unexpected. Yesterday I reassured her as I could, and today I asked Facebook to tell me how to speak with loved ones in such a situation.

Tips about the fact that “you probably should leave the country, since you are afraid,” I do not consider it right. To be afraid in this situation is normal, not to be afraid - this is strange. You just need to understand how to maintain mental balance.

We are not going to leave Israel. I just think how to stabilize myself and the child in terms of psyche, and how to find a compromise between reasonable precautions and living a complete interesting life that will not take place in a permanent sense of fear. I have not yet found the answer to this question, but I continue to remind myself that in fact I am in a plus or minus security.

"Glory to Allah that all this ended"

Ahmad, Director of the Optics store in the shopping center Azrieli Malch, a resident of East Jerusalem

- I was at work when Siren sounded. I didn’t go anywhere, I stayed at the workplace with Jihad (the second store employee. - Approx. Ed.) . It is written in our Qur'an that there is such a thing as “maktub”: this is what is destined to be above. If Allah decided that we have to die today, then we will certainly die, and it doesn’t matter if we will sit in the store or in a bomb shelter. If I were at home, I would be more worried about the fact that my children and my wife would be nearby, and since I was here without them, I had nothing to worry about. Jihad generally continued to fill out the working forms in the computer.

By the way, it’s good that we have not gone anywhere during anxiety, because many stores were robbed. The workers fled to the shelter without closing them, and thieves took advantage of them. They stole everything in a row: pots, perfumes.

I called my wife and reassured her, she was scared and went out with the children to the stairwell. Glory to Allah that all this ended. We just want silence.

"I was forced to tell the children the truth - that these are rockets"

Leia, teacher from Kiryat-Motskina

- Sirena found us with children in a children's park. Not far from him there is a bomb shelter, we ran there. There were a lot of missiles, I have never seen this before. Unfortunately, my children also saw all this and were very scared. They began to ask questions, and I was forced to tell them the truth: that these are rockets that fly over us. In addition, I was very worried about my husband, who serves in the Navy. During the air anxiety, he was just going home.

The rear service requires that during missile attacks, drivers stop on the sidelines and leave the car, but this time it was impossible to do, because there were a lot of people on the road and all the roadsides were busy.

He had to go further, risking his life. Then, already on TV, I saw that several missiles had fallen directly on the tracks and miraculously none of the drivers died.

In the last few weeks, our life has changed dramatically, it has turned into hell. There is no studies in our area, I conduct lessons in the zoom, and at the same time I need to be next to my two children and support them. It is very difficult. I am a drawing teacher in first grade, and this is my first year in the profession. I never thought that it would begin that way.

"The sounds of explosions are good, which means that rockets are knocked down"

Sonya, director and screenwriter from Haifa

-The notification of the upcoming attack overtook me on the way home from Tel Aviv. The movement was dense - the end of the working day before the holiday. People in neighboring cars began to slow down. Usually the Israelis surrounding me are well prepared, they do everything clearly and quickly. But at that moment it seemed to me that everyone was not sure. I stopped on the side of the road, even for some reason I managed to carefully park. It was very quiet. Many continued to go in the left lane.

I got out of the car and began to look around. The man left the truck and squatted down to the chipper. I did the same. It was still quiet, but in the distance lights appeared in the sky. Soon, people got up and began to drive away. And then it began: the siren howled, and the sky was already lit with lights. People from neighboring cars jumped over the chipper and ran away into the field, away from cars. I followed them, but I remember how surprised that I have no feeling of fear.

The sounds of explosions began: this is good, which means that the missiles are knocked down. The children screamed, adults next to me began to sing a prayer. One woman had a real tantrum, she rushed from side to side, tried to call someone, screamed something. I sat nearby and hugged her. So we sat until everything was subsided.

We sat down on cars and drove on. Five minutes later, the sirens turned on again. At that moment, I was on the bridge and there was absolutely nowhere to move away from the car. I remember that it was loud. I even tried to joke about something in messages to friends, because what else to do? I was glad that all my houses. When Siren subsided, I reached friends in Netania, this is about halfway to my house.

The navigator almost did not work. Being near the houses was much calmer. After felting under the shelling in the open air, it is no longer scary to wait out the attack under any roof.

I continued the way home closer to the night. I rode along the almost empty highway, dangling with friends. Their support helped a lot. At the end of the evening, the police stopped me and wrote out a giant penalty for using the phone at the wheel. I tried to tell something about tonight, but the policeman was not in Israeli cold. This is probably because: “And what is it here? Everyone once lying under shelling. ” Such a reality.

"There the earth is still in the blood"

Sarah, writer from Jaffa

- I was in Hebrew courses in Ulpan, we were going to celebrate the Jewish New Year. There were already news that Iran could hit, but we thought it would take a lot of time and would happen in the middle of the night. Suddenly a woman who was the main one came to us, and told us to disperse. But not because Iran had to bomb us, but because there was a terrorist attack on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, where I live. We have a neighboring chat, and there everyone just lives next to this tram stop, where everything happened. At first they wrote about the sounds of shots there, thinking that it was once again a meat store shot. Jaffa is a rather criminal area, it is very mixed, there are many Arabs, Jews, us (repatriates); Apparently, he is divided into some clans, so we constantly have criminal incidents. We always discuss this in the chat, but this time after some time information began to appear that it was terrorists who left the tram and shot people.

We began to diverge from Ulpan, and I received a warning about danger on my phone - but not from the service of the rear, as usual, but right from the iPhone. Then it turned out that this is an innovation from the government, and that the notifications are now coming to the phone, even if there is no Internet.

We were all told to go into the shelter and took it to the basement, and there was such cool music and simulators in it, it was a gym at the hotel. The horror was that I was there, and my husband and one child-in one place, and another teenager, went with friends to celebrate the New Year to the park in the north of Tel Aviv.

And I'm in complete horror, because hell is already happening, very loudly. Usually, when missiles are shot down over Tel Aviv, you hear pops-it works air defense-and after some time it ends. It did not end here. Everyone who was sitting in the shelter constantly rang notifications of anxiety. Of course, we got wine, made friends with each other. It was no longer so scary, but it was also not clear what would happen when we exit. There were such explosions that it seemed: half a city there was already demolished. But, of course, there was nothing like that. But what happened on the boulevard is absolutely terrible.

The names of the victims were hiding for a long time, then gradually they began to call them. And you understand that with all these people you have some common friends.

They shot a girl who covered her son-she worked at someone’s school and was engaged in physical education with children. Another murdered is the mother of a six -year -old girl who studies with the children of many friends. In all groups, they collect money to her family. With the rest of the dead the same way: this is a very small country.

When I returned home at about ten in the evening, everything was cordoned off. Journalists stood, the police gathered bullets. And today, in a neighboring chat, someone wrote that there the earth is still in the blood.