A Russian woman on vacation in Israel told how she survived the shelling

A Muscovite who came to Israel with her ten-year-old son on vacation found herself in the epicenter of the Palestinian-Israeli war. Story about it transmitted publication “Izvestia”.

According to Alexandra, they flew to Israel and stayed in the city of Ashkelon, which is located in close proximity to the Gaza Strip. When the conflict between Arabs and Israelis escalates, Ashkelon is the first to receive a rocket attack, which explains the lower cost of housing in this city compared to the central cities of Israel.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 7, a woman and her son were awakened by explosions. She took her son to a mamad, a fortified room with reinforced concrete walls and a metal door, to protect him from danger. The explosions continued, the windows shook, and only a few minutes after the attack began, the sirens went off, warning of a missile strike.

They sat in mamada until noon. The electricity was turned off due to a missile hitting the power plant; of all types of communication, only regular telephone communication was working. There was smoke coming from the street, but they couldn’t close the windows because of safety regulations. All windows and doors in the apartment should be kept open so that they are not knocked out by the shock wave

After talking with relatives and friends whose houses were damaged by shelling, the woman cried for the first time. She and her son were constantly startled by the sounds of passing military aircraft, ambulances and fire departments.

The next day, the Muscovite decided to go to the store for groceries because they had run out of water and bread. The streets were empty.

Meanwhile, warning messages began to appear in Telegram channels – terrorists threatened to strike Israel. They fulfilled their promises at midnight. The attack was relatively short-lived, but Ashkelon was hit again, the publication’s interlocutor notes.

On the morning of October 9, the city began to come to life – buses appeared, more shops opened. The woman decided to go to her friend, with whom she had spoken on the phone the day before. “I parked and started crying out loud,” she says. “I’ve only seen this in disaster movies.” She described the situation: burnt cars, a broken barrier, a house blackened by fire, holes in the asphalt and everything in fragments.

There were only a few people in the only open store – some were buying alcohol, others were buying cereals and toilet paper. The woman burst into tears again. The Russian-speaking saleswoman did not take money from her for her purchases and asked her to quickly hide in a safe place.

“Ten minutes after I entered the apartment, rocket attacks began again,” Alexandra continues. —. My son and I are sitting in the mamad, the light is blinking treacherously, the phone is going dead. But we have a jar of nut butter.”