First Hand Account from Ashkelon : Living under Rocket Fire Nov 12-Nov 14, 2019

Between Nov 12-Nov 14, over 450 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. I live in Ashkelon in Southern Israel and I finally getting a whole nights sleep now that the rockets have stopped coming in. Gaza loves to send a lot of rockets in the middle of the night when you get a rude awakening from the sirens and have to jump out of bed and run to a safe area.

But,I am one of the lucky ones who only has to go across the hall to a safe room in our apartment. Others have to go to a stairwell of a multi story building or a small safe building outside of their apartment building or house. I do feel sorry for parents whose children are already frightened enough from the siren and now the parents have to schlep them out of their beds to a safe area.

One of the rockets from the latest barrage hit a little too close to home on the afternoon of 13 Nov. As my husband Ariel and I were in the safe room we heard a large boom and knew it sounded very close. We went out on the balcony of our 7th floor apt and saw the black smoke rising from an area I know three of my friends live in. I immediately phoned one of them to see if they were okay. My friend Shirley told me that she was fine but that the debris from the hit was all over her court yard. My friend Loraine was pretty shaken up as she felt the vibration in her floor and the explosion was so loud it gave her such a fright she felt her heart racing for quite a while. My freind Yoanna told me that no one in the area has a safe room and the bomb shelter was too far for most of the people get to it in time, so they normally just hide in their bathrooms.

Within minutes of the hit I could see the emergency vehicles heading over that way. It is impressive how the IDF and civilian authorities worked together with such efficiency. Thankfully only one senior citizen was injured from shattered glass and shock.

After so many rockets being fired into Israel I got a little tired of reading the news about the Israeli government talking to Hamas about a cease fire that everyone knows means we cease and they fire (a least a few more rockets). You know they always have to have the last word.

Now the question is when will the next round of rockets will rain down on this country again.