My friend Naomi was on the bus on the way home when the sirens started blaring all over Tel Aviv. Their experiences are heartbreaking.
“Suddenly our phones vibrated with alerts, the bus was evacuated and we all had to hide behind the bus stop,” he tells me, sobbing.
“There were two little boys curled up next to me and their mother was covering their heads with her arm.”
When, after a while, the rockets stopped, Naomi and the other passengers returned to the bus. Moments later the bombing began again.
“This time we went under a bridge,” Naomi said. ‘We could see the rockets flying above us in the sky. Every time one was hit by a defensive Iron
Dome missile, the blast was so loud that the ground shook.
A man holds two children as people take cover during an air raid siren in Israel
Dramatic footage shows missiles exploding near Tel Aviv
Civilians take shelter as Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1
This image shows projectiles intercepted by Israel near the northern city of Baqa al-Gharbiya on October 1.
After a few more minutes, Naomi, 32, returned to the bus. They were driving down the road when rockets began raining down on them for the third time.
“We were like easy targets. There was nowhere to go. “We lay down on the side of the road under some bushes and I was shaking,” he said.
“I video called my mom because I was absolutely terrified. And I began to pray, to say the Shema (the last thing a Jew is supposed to say before he dies) and to scream and cry. I was telling him that I thought I was going to die. And I kept saying I’m going to die here. I’m going to die. I don’t want to die.’
After more than an hour, he stopped. For now.
It’s a story many Israelis will recognize after Iran struck yesterday afternoon with a massive missile attack.
And like so many friends and family in Israel, I have spent the last few days in fear, worried that such an attack would occur.
Shortly after 5:15pm UK time I received my first text from Israel.
Dozens of WhatsApp groups, all asking the same frantic questions: ‘Are you in a shelter?’ ‘Are you safe?’ ‘Is everyone okay?’
This image shows projectiles intercepted by Israel over Tel Aviv on October 1, 2024.
People take shelter behind vehicles under a roadside bridge in Tel Aviv on October 1.
Men, women and children take shelter as air raid sirens sound across Israel
The Israeli military claimed that Iran launched missiles against the State of Israel.
But this was terribly different from the thousands of rocket attacks that Israelis have unfortunately become accustomed to over the past 12 months.
This is because it was Iran that decided to launch almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, forcing millions of citizens – including dozens of my family and friends – to take refuge in bomb shelters.
This is only the second time Iran has directly attacked Israel with missiles, rather than using one of its proxy groups.
An earlier attack in April was fortunately thwarted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. Shortly after 5 p.m. local time, gunmen opened fire on innocent civilians on Jerusalem Boulevard in the port city of Jaffa.
Devastating images of bodies scattered on the sidewalk began to circulate in WhatsApp groups.
By the time the Mail went to press, at least six had been killed and ten injured. I immediately texted my family group chat: “Checking no one is in Jaffa or Tel Aviv.” My aunt responded that she was safe at home. ‘Don’t go out!’ my grandmother added nervously.
Then my ‘Red Alerts’ app, which warns users about the location of missile attacks in Israel, started flashing.
When I clicked on the app, the entire map of Israel was covered in these red warning signs. Tel-Aviv. Jerusalem. Ra’anana: All are expected to be hit by missiles within minutes.
Projectiles fly in the sky after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
Iranians celebrate in the street after the launch of a barrage of missiles against Israel
This photo taken on April 14, 2024 shows explosion flares in the sky over Tel Aviv as Israel’s anti-missile system intercepts Iran’s missiles and drones.
Israeli police inspect a crater left by a shell explosion in a heavily damaged school building in the southern Israeli town of Gedera.
The missile attack came as Israeli police were fighting a terrorist attack in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv.
Many rockets, fired from Iran, are seen over Jerusalem from Hebron, West Bank.
As I zoomed in on the map I could see that many of the areas that were being indiscriminately attacked by Iran’s terrorist missiles were filled with my loved ones, waiting expectantly in shelters.
It’s hard to express the panic of knowing that your family and friends are trapped in a country where deadly fires are raining down.
“It’s horrible to see,” my mother messaged in the chat while her sister (my aunt) hid in a bomb shelter with her husband and three of their children.
These deadly ‘fireworks’ were also filmed flying over Jerusalem, the holiest place for so many religions.
Meanwhile, my cousin, who studies at a religious university or ‘Yeshiva’ in northern Israel, began sending shocking videos of rockets flying nearby along with the caption ‘non-stop explosions!’
‘Stop filming and get into the shelter!’ My aunt responded in a panic. But the trauma for so many Israelis will last long beyond this night of terror.
“It’s very sad what happened,” my 14-year-old cousin texted me around 7:45 p.m., once she left the shelter.
He had no real words of comfort for her.
‘I know, my love. Is.’