I figure that this might be a good place for an update on the situation in Israel from someone who lives in Israel.
Saturday morning on the way to shul I heard the low rumble that indicated artillery in the distance. Before I could ask anyone what the story was the sirens went off and almost simultaneously there was an interception (kind of a mid-air explosion which is VERY LOUD) by the iron dome defense system. The Iron Dome had stopped one of the more than 5,000 missiles Hamas shot at Israel. (I don't want to make this political, but ask yourselves where in the world would a country tolerate even one projectile from a neighboring "country" or territory?)
Our shul does not have its own shelter so everyone was running down to a school that had large shelters. I decided that it would not be easy for me to run up and down the steps so I decided to go back up to my apartment as my wife was alone and we have a re-inforced room. This was 8:15 a.m. At 8:30 the second warning sirens were heard in our area. Again there was a noticeable interception and a loud explosion. From 8:30 to 11 the warning sirens went off 7 more times in our area.
A reminder, as Orthodox Jews my family and I and 99.99% of our town do not turn electric switches on or off on the Sabbath so we had no official information until Saturday night. There was an army presence in our small town before noon our time and one soldier told of the breach of the defenses around Gaza and that people were even abducted to Gaza. Honestly, I thought that this guy was somehow misinformed.
Unfortunately, he was right.
Saturday night there was no public transportation. Many businesses are closed. Schools are closed. The Post office is closed. Many if not all banks are closed. There is a full-scale mobilization of the army reserves so there are many many people back in uniform and thus not working at their regular jobs. Additionally, there are no Arab workers being admitted to our town so public transportation is sporadic and all public services will be disrupted. Yesterday, one of my sons went and helped re-stock shelves in a supermarket. It is hard for many of us who grew up in Western countries to face the idea of food uncertainty, but I have no idea if the large-scale commercial bakeries will be able to actually bake bread. Who will drive the milk from the farms to the processing plants? Who will run the plants? Who will drive the milk and cottage cheese back to the supermarkets? The list of questions is very long.
We have a trash pickup every Saturday night in our town. Yesterday, a day late, there was a crew of older men struggling to move the dumpster to a position where the truck could grab it and raise it.
The silence is deafening. With the near-constant roar of jets and helicopters being the only thing you hear. No one is on the streets. No children on the way to or from school. No children playing on the streets.
Between the time I started this message and now we had a rocket land a few hundred yards from our location. The main street of our neighborhood received the rocket. The rocket landed directly outside a school. Fortunately, the schools are still closed. There were several people injured, and one 10-year-old boy was seriously injured.
To understand the magnitude consider that the USA was attacked on 9/11 and there were nearly 3000 innocent victims in a country that has 40 times more population than Israel.
That is 1/3 of the victims (so far) while having only about 1/40th of the population.
Even one life lost is too many, but Israel has suffered a blow that is devastating and the magnitude of this atrocity is unimaginable.
Videos of the hostages and murdered victims show what kind of enemy we are dealing with. Our enemy has no morals or decency there is no Geneva Convention as far as these animals are concerned. People who rape women and kidnap children and the elderly are cowards who deserve all the suffering they will receive.
The Holy One should smite all of these animals with 10 times the pain and agony they have unleashed on the Nation of Israel.
This is my story as of now. You can feel free to ask questions.