A resident of Netanya explains what it is like for average Israeli citizens to wake up at 2:00am to a Houthi ballistic missile attack.
By Rachel Avraham
At 2:00am on Sunday morning, the bomb sirens were sounded in Netanya, Herzliya, Modiin, Ra’anana, Ramat Ha-Sharon, Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion International Airport, Bnei Brak, Holon, Kfar Chabad, Lod, Petach Tikva, Ramat Gan, Ramla, Rishon Le-Tzion, Jaffa, Rehovot and a variety of other places across Central Israel.
Millions of Israelis were forced to rush for cover, including many who were forced to grab their sleeping children and their pet dogs from their beds as they ran for safety. For many families, this is a very complicated task, especially if you live on the fourth floor of your building and have more than one child to wake up.
Like everyone else in my building, when the Houthis decided to strike this time, I was in bed, trying to sleep at 2:00am and then I was forced to jump out of bed and to rush to my bomb shelter. This meant rushing down four flights of stairs at 2am in the morning. By a stroke of luck, on that particular night, the children were with their grandparents, so that I would have the freedom to see a friend of mine.
Otherwise, I would have been forced to take three elementary school children down four flights of stairs in a matter of seconds at 2:00am in the morning, which is not a simple task for any parent, but it is an especially difficult task if you are a single parent because your husband passed away several years ago. For a single parent, it is like mission impossible, yet most single parents try anyways to do it for the children can be in danger if they do not reach the bomb shelter in time and no normal parent wants to endanger their child.
Inside the bomb shelter, one truly gets to know one’s neighbors. On this particular night, I saw a Haredi father with his four daughters in their pajamas, a couple of teenagers in their pajamas with their pet dog, and another neighbor in her pajamas crowded with me inside of the bomb shelter. It was far from everyone that lives in my building. In fact, I noticed that the elderly French neighbor from across the street was absent. In the past, she told me that at her age it is virtually impossible to run down four flights of stairs. If she felt like that during the daytime, I could only imagine how she felt about that at 2:00am. In this manner, the elderly population in Israel is among the most at risk from the Houthi ballistic missiles for it is harder for them to run for shelter.
While inside the bomb shelter, I asked one of my neighbors, “Don’t the Houthis sleep at night? You know if you want to fire a ballistic missile at 2:00am in the morning, that also means waking up at 2:00am in the morning yourself.” One of my neighbors shrugged her shoulders and said, “The Houthis do not have a life.” I then told my neighbor, “I don’t think it will be possible for me to go back to sleep and to wake up at 6:00am to work. I think that I am going to drink some Turkish coffee, eat breakfast and begin my workday at 2:00am, writing about the Houthi missile attack since I am a journalist.” The other neighbors began to laugh.
When the bomb siren was over, I immediately called the children’s grandfather to make sure that the children were ok, even though it was 2:00am in the morning. As a worried parent, knowing about the safety of my children could not wait until the morning. The grandfather answered and confirmed that the children were fine. I then called my parents in America to inform them that I survived the Houthi ballistic missile attack, and that there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the attack. They then breathed a sigh of relief and told me to go back to bed.
However, I chose to go to work instead, thus pulling an all-nighter because the Houthis disrupted my sleep and I could not be relaxed enough to go back to sleep afterwards. This may not be the healthy thing to do, but the Houthis are to be blamed for any adverse side effects. Not everyone is capable of getting up at 2:00am and then going back to sleep for four hours, only to wake up for work at 6:00am. Some people like me find it easier just to pull an all-nighter.
This is what it is like to live through a Houthi ballistic missile attack at 2:00am in the morning. Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 35 ballistic missiles and at least 10 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short, the Times of Israel reported. However, many of the attacks have happened in the middle of the night, thus waking up Israeli families at ungodly hours. It is a pity that US President Donald Trump was not in Israel today. I wanted him to have the experience of getting woken up to run to a bomb shelter at 2:00am in the morning, so that he would understand what average Israelis are living through and will understand the critical need of including Israel in any cease-fire deal with the Houthis.
