Four large explosions in the early hours of Sunday morning marked the start of the attack. The explosions shook our apartment. Incredibly, they didn’t wake our three-month-old baby, Eden.
In the sky outside our window, my husband David and I saw flashes and rays of blinding light.
We did not know if the explosions came from the impact of Iranian missiles and drones hitting the city, or if our air defenses were intercepting the bombs.
We live on the fourth floor of a 300-year-old building in Talpiot, just outside of Jerusalem.
In the buildings around us we could hear people screaming: were they simply terrified or had they been injured?
In the sky outside our window, my husband David and I saw flashes and rays of blinding light. In the photo: Mia Amran and baby Eden.
Pictured: An anti-missile system in Israel intercepting rockets launched earlier this year from the Gaza Strip.
I first read about the initial warnings of the attack when I looked at my mobile phone shortly after 7pm on Saturday.
Immediately, David ran to the local store to buy water. Everyone was panic buying, he said.
We tried to stay calm, but Eden could sense our tension and cried for a long time.
Finally, she fell asleep. We did not. I sat next to her crib, ready to grab her.
When the sirens sounded, the noise was heartbreaking. Our building does not have a bomb shelter.
Official advice is for residents to take shelter within 90 seconds on the ground floor stairs, the safest place in the event of a bomb attack.
We grabbed our to-go bags containing passports, phones and other essentials and joined our neighbors who were crowding into the space under the stairs.
Everyone was dressed in sleepwear and robes: about 30 people from the eight apartments, including three families with young children and teenagers.
The adults remained calm, but the little ones were crying and very scared. They were old enough to know that we were all in great danger. They couldn’t understand why it was happening.
I was holding my baby, trying to breathe deeply. My husband was shaking uncontrollably, wrapping his arms around us both.
Parts of a missile launched by Iran are found in Amman, Jordan, on April 14.
Drones or missiles competing for targets at undisclosed locations in northern Israel, photographed on April 14.
I realized that he felt a lot of responsibility to protect his young family. All this adrenaline was rushing through our bodies and we had no way to do anything but wait.
Nobody was talking. We were all silent, praying and thinking about our loved ones. We were waiting for the sirens to sound again.
There is no official “all clear” alert – government advice is that it is safe to return to our homes 15 minutes after the sirens end.
That was the longest quarter of an hour of my life.
When we returned to our apartment and realized that we had overcome the danger, we were both struck by an overwhelming sadness.
We hugged each other, letting each other cry. And then we had a glass of water, tried to calm our nerves, and started to regroup in case it happened again.