Last evening, the alarm suddently went on in Tel-Aviv. My wife was with our 5yo in a nearby mall, buying him clothes for the winter (which here means 15 degrees celsius :-) ), so they rushed to a public shelter. Although nothing actually hit TLV, our 5yo reached home scared and started asking about missles, war, enemies, etc. Our part-time nany rushed with our 11mnths baby to the building's shelter, where our appartment is. But the baby took it quite OK, as it was surrounded with friendly neighbours :-) I myself spent those minutes in our shelter in the office building, and spent the late evening preparing bags for the baby+toddler, in case we will need to go to the selter for a longer period. I slept in my clothes, and told my 5yo that we may need to wake him up midst of the night and go to the local shelter.
This is reality for the south of Israel for already 3 years now, I do not envy them and I blame our governments (past and present) for not solving this this way or the other (assuming the Hamas is at all interested in a solution, which is doubtfull at best). But now since it has escalated, Hamas is also targeting TLV and other major cities.
This is not a thread to strat blaiming the murderous Hamas, which btw prevented from the EU representatives to leave Gaza and kept them hostage, but rather to describe you parental feelings I hope none of you will have to worry about.
Have a nice weekend :-)
It's difficult for me to even imagine what that must be like. Having kids myself and having only ever seen what your going through from the safety of my sofa. I really hope things calm down soon and you and your family stay safe and don't have to go through more evenings like that.
I agree with Whitey, I hope things calm down very soon, it must be very worrying especially with small children.
I hope things calm down. The people are not directly responsible for a countries actions so attacking civilians is always wrong. Whether you kill hundreds of "terrorist leaders" (civilians/elected officials) with helicopter gun ships and laser guided missiles, or you're throwing dozens of rockets haphazardly across the border with no hope of coming remotely close to hitting a "military target" which is surrounded by civilians regularly killing them.
Based on the history this is unlikely settle down. As long as innocent civilians on both sides are getting killed I don't believe either side has a true place in society. Sadly the international community seem ok with ignoring the situation.
I hope you and your family stay safe and that one day there will be peace.
Aye, Good luck LeRouge and I hope things settle down.
As you say it's not the thread to start blaming the 'murderous Hamas' as you put it but I think if both countries look into their hearts there have been many atrocities on both sides and it's not a one-way streak. I know exiled Palestinians who would no doubt (and do) say the same about Israel. I also know the UK has had its moments (many and often unfortunately).
Let's just pray for the civilians of wars throughout the world and hope that one day we'll be mature enough to say 'enough, stop now'.
Look after your family.
Best wishes
Stay safe mate.
Hopefully both sides will come to their senses and pack this madness in before any more innocent civilians get hurt.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 LTE.
Keep safe LR, and take care of the family.
Must be crazy over there at the moment, keep family safe and hope things calm down!
Thank you all. Unfortunately I do not see an end to this. It has been going for decades (centuries, if you like), and the situation can either be "calm" (see fo example the prosperity in Ramallah) or "uncalm" (with rockets by Hamas/Jihad and busses exploding). Let's hope we get back to "calm" sooner than later.