Israel: I Turned My Phone Off and Went to Sleep

By Marney Blom

Early yesterday morning I was startled awake by the pinging sounds of the Red Alert app on my phone. Oh no, not again! I thought. Less than two weeks ago rockets had struck Tel Aviv.

Sure enough, the pinging sounds indicated sirens were going off, but this time the rocket fire had penetrated a densely populated area in central Israel. No rockets had ever traveled that great a distance from Gaza — 100 kilometers. No-one expected that, especially the British-Israeli Wolf family living in Moshav Mishmeret, rudely awakened by the explosive sounds of their home collapsing around them. Seven Israelis were injured by the blast.

Later in the evening, my Red Alert app started pinging again, but this time it didn’t stop. It continued for hours. Rockets were raining down on communities of southern Israel adjacent to the Gaza Strip, leaving citizens a mere 15 seconds to get out of harm’s way. The rocket barrage was launched in response to Israel’s targeting of Hamas strongholds and ammunition sites inside Gaza — an act of retaliation against Hamas’ earlier Mishmeret strike.

Hastily, I sent messages to people across the globe, encouraging them to pray for God to protect the innocent Israelis who were, at that exact moment, scrambling to find refuge in their bomb shelters. When it finally got late, I turned my phone off and went to bed knowing whole communities of Israelis were struggling to sleep amidst the unrelenting Tzeva Adom warning sirens. God protect the people of the south, I prayed.