Waiting for Iranian missiles to land on your house - comment

• Published date: 14 April 2024
• Author: DAVID BRINN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

After the whole country entered crisis mode over the last week, Shabbat had passed peacefully, at least in regards to Iran. The West Bank was a mess, sparked by the brutal murder of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair and the resultant retribution by extremist settlers. And Hamas, as was expected, rejected yet another proposal to implement a ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release

Expecting to see that Tehran was bluffing or just making life edgy for us following last week's attack attributed to Israel that killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Muhammad Reza Zehidi, I instead jolted up when tweets started exploding saying Iran had launched a massive drone and missile attack aimed at us.

Goodbye 'Curb', hello N12, where the news was confirmed, along with the information that it could take up to eight hours for the load to arrive at its destination.

Like most of the rest of the country, my wife and I remained glued to the TV for the next couple hours, amid the great uncertainty that engulfed the unfolding events. Would the missiles get through? How much damage? Would they be targeting Jerusalem, with its sizeable Muslim population, not to mention the Aksa Mosque?

And most pertinent, what the hell were we going to do? Stay up all night and wait for Iran's present to arrive? For some, going to sleep when a missile could be headed to your home is an impossible mission, but at 11.30 pm, that's exactly what I did.

My wife, who belonged the normative side of the population, stayed up and shook me awake at around 1.30 am and said ' let's go to the shelter, there are alerts in Jerusalem.' At that moment, a series of booms emanating from the East toward the Dead Sea and Jordan shook windows, as I blearily fumbled for my glasses, phones, shoes, and attempted to gulp a cup of water.

Down the stairs outside our home, around to the other side of the building and up one flight to the reinforced shelter, we found a couple of neighbors milling about in the jammies. Others either chose to sit this one out or, because there was no siren alert, weren't even aware that something was amiss, and sleeping through it.

After the required 10 minutes in the shelter, we trudged back home, watched a little more TV. Realizing that if there was another volley, it wouldn't be a for a few...