Living under fire of ROCKETS over a decade, how its really like

Hi again friends and supporters. 

There's an article I wanted to post in a big american website prior to operation "Protective Edge" but I will post it here instead. please, share it so the whole world will know how it's like living for 13 years with the threat of rockets killing you and everyone you love is daily and around the clock.

 But first, here some background music that will help you understand what is Hamas and what they really stand for.

(Sabaton - In the name of God)

First of all few statistics

Terror organization from Gaza started firing rockets on civilian population since 2001.

In 2005 Israel disconnected and gave lands to Gaza for peace. Since than over 20,000 rockets

where fired to Israel.

Since operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 over 400 (MiF note: the number is outdated since I wrote this) rockets were fired to Israel.

Most of them between June-July 2014 as part of escalation initiated by the worldly known terrorist organization Hamas that kidnapped 3 teenagers and murdered them.

#1
It affects the way you dress

Say this is summer the temperature is 35-40 celcius (95-105 farenhait).You will probably where shorts, sandals and flip-flops, right?

If you need to throw the trash you wouldn't give it much thought just wear

something because its only few seconds.

Well in the reality of living under the terror of rockets you give it some serious thought.

Ideally you have 15 seconds to find shelters when you hear the code red alarm goes on. In most cases its less than that like 5 seconds (sometimes the alarm starts after the explosion of the hit) so you probably choose shoes like running shoes or even boots to throw to trash not to mention all your other daily activities even in the hot days of summer. Because you don't want to trip, twist your ankle or something that will delay from getting in to safe zone.

And sometimes you don't have the time so what you can do is just lay on the ground and cover your head with your hands.

But shreds from the rocket or pieces of glass, stone and other objects can hit you in your back, legs and hands.

So personally I usually still prefer wearing jeans because of the strong fabric and boots because it keeps the leg safer and its harder to twist ankle when you run because it gives some support. (jeans is actually more psychological than practical to be fully honest). 

Wait I didnt finish with this point. So atleast in your house you can be in your tighty walter whities right? Well not exactly. You see, the values of community and helping each other are strong in my city espcially in times of need. So many houses keep their doors open from early morning to the late night hours. Some even keep them almost 24/7 open. No one really want to be the douchebag that someone was killed because he let in for shelter when the rockets start to fall around.

But still in this unusual scenario you dont want to look like you neglect yourself.  So  even in the late night hours people think about what to wear.

#2

Bathing and Showering are not relaxing

So this reality is very stressful and you just want to take few minutes to relax. Maybe take a soothing bath or cleaning yourself up from the blood, sweat and tears of the day because Hamas arranged a private flight for the grim reaper to pay our city a visit.

The thing is, it becomes scary of its own. You see, most bathrooms are not made to endure under the hits of rockets or the shock waves of the hit. Take into account that in many bathroom there are mirrors, glass and other dangerously fragile that can become sharp items and you got yourself a nice death trap. It's Jigsaw's wet dream scenario.

So some people try to postpone it, make a project out of it with someone waiting outside the door to call you when the “code red” alarm and sirens are on so you could cover yourself with towel so you would not run butt-naked to a safety room or shelter or the building stairs room. And as we mentioned, in times like this people will probably get inside your house to take cover and its makes the situation a lot more uncomfortable if you are naked and face filled with shampoo.

Same thing is with toilets. You really dont want to get caught with your pants down so to speak.

You see, you need to appreciate this things. For millions of people in Israel this is a terrifying moments which they need to decide what they prefer. They're health and hygene or life.

3#

Long-Distance EVERYTHING

I guess everyone here is familiar with the term long-distance relationships.

What if everything in your life become long-distance and not by choice.

You see all this years living in a life looking like a bad sci-fi/action movie (Because seriously life like this seems totally unreal) the way your life looks like change drastically you see when you are a kid or teenager living here your parents probably would not want you or let you go out. Sometimes the government decides everyone should stay in shelters to not take any risks. So you keep in touch with your friends through phone calls, texting, facebook. You get the point.

So sometimes you hardly go to school, sometimes they able to arrange buses and classes in other cities we can atleast study there. So sometimes you can spends weeks in shelter or at home or weeks going back and forth to different cities to study and taking exams.

There was also an initiative to open classes through internet so we can watch videos, lectures or download notes so we won't miss much material from the curriculum.

Also did I mention that many people skipped town for days, weeks, forever just to take a break from this life? So yeah there are people you hardly see and people you will hardly see in the future.

#4

Sleep is for the weak.. or the sane

The problem with living in constant fear for your life is that it fucks you up.

People develop problems like PTSD, kids lose control of their bladder even in older ages

and anyway the Hamas enjoying launching rockets even late at night so its kind of hard to sleep when you hear and feel the explosions and the sirens would not stop because suddenly they decided to escalate. So yeah your sleep cycle gets crazy, biological clock is not synch to normal people life.

Studies of sleep deprivation show the damages caused by it. Mental problems, physical problems. Basically this is a constant torture we are put through by terror organization. This torture is killing people even if they dont hit you directly with their rockets. So thumbs up Hamas you get the reward of being inhumane douchebags who get kicks of torturing civilians and children for kicks.

#5

Counter-Equipment makes normal things look sci-fi

So its starts with that most houses in my city got special operations room standard beeper which alerts if there are rockets going to fall near by with sometimes messages of how much and when.

Add to that the speakers for the alert “code red” everywhere around so you will have few seconds to pray and take cover before it hits.

Bomb shelters were laid down around the city, most bus station have small shelters now to.

To make it less terrifying artist from abroad and from Israel tried to decorate them and paint them to look less intimidating ugly and weird sci-fi.

Schools have arches and exo-skeleton like metal and bocks layers which make them look monstrous and gave children nightmares at first.

Also we have the world's first sheltered play-ground for kids. So parents wouldnt have to overthink if they can take them to play outside with friends and if its safe for them and if they wouldnt be hurt.

Seriously if you think this is sane-normal for a western country to have cities in this situation something is wrong with you.

#6

PTSD and Agoraphobia makes your brain feel trapped in a bad action movie in loop

So years under the threats of being killed by rockets, day and night screws your brain you suffer from PTSD and maybe Agoraphobia variations.

Everytime you step out of the door be it for work, school, a walk, a ride you start thinking stuff "where is the closest shelter"? "Where I wont be alone in case of trouble"? "What is the best way to run"? Even moral questions start to pop up. Lets say you are in a car with your two small kids. And the alarm goes on and you have only few seconds to choose which one are you going to get out of the car for safety. How can you choose? How do you deal with this? Choosing life of one over another. And lets say its not your kids just you see few kids alone on the street how can you handle helping them all to get into safety? Its insane!

Also besides over thinking on what to do and how to deal with stuff (and in many times people had to deal with this situations and moral questions) you have to deal with your body.

Feeling like your heart is going to explode because its racing and you feel every pound like a punch in the chest, feeling the fear like this is your last day or how they going to tell your family you are dead or how could you deal with life if you lose both your legs or you just freeze in spot.

Or putting on loud music in your earphones so you try to distract yourself from the situations, disassociate yourself and not thinking about and ignoring from the alarms and explosions.

Yeah thats pretty much my highschool memories of going to and back from school.

This pretty much a small summary of things that I think most people never thought of about living under the constant fire of rockets. please share the truth. STOP HAMAS!

Dov Trachtman - The Man in Fort