Hezbollah is now firing medium-range rockets into Israel that can travel up to ten miles. It is affecting areas that have so far avoided attacks from Lebanon.
In a kibbutz in Yagur, not far from Haifa and 60 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, an NRK reporter meets Norwegian Kari Smith. She has children and grandchildren in the area. She says tension is now constantly in the air.
“The bomb will drop in one minute”
– We feel the increasing tension from what we see and hear on TV, and the messages we receive from the kibbutz and from the defense. We are now in level three. This means, among other things, that all schools are closed. Everyone is sitting at home in shelters.
Smith says explosions are happening more often now than before, and alarms are going off everywhere.
She displays an app on her phone that warns, among other things, of attacks near her residence. A message appears saying that a bomb will fall in one minute.
– He feels safe. People in Lebanon don't have what we have. They don't have the same security.
Smith says that before the attack Sunday night, they all had a feeling something was going to happen.
– I went to bed and slept for about an hour and woke up at 12 noon. I had a feeling that something was wrong here. There was tension in the air.
Don't panic
Smith lives in an old house with no shelter. She usually goes to the bedroom, the deepest room in the house, when the plane alarm goes off. On Sunday night, her son, who lives in a newer house, took her.
– But there was no sleep. Even if the plane alarm didn't go off here, it was everywhere around you.
And finally they heard the explosions too.
– It was probably anti-aircraft fire that exploded. It was almost all night.
Smith says the night was painful and heavy.
– We won't know who Hezbollah is when they arrive, and we have to run. We have nowhere to run to. After all, we have several million people sitting and waiting near the shelters.
“It’s heavy, but I’m far from panicking. Maybe I’ve reached the point where what’s happening has to happen,” says Carrie Smith. “I’ve reached that mindset now.”
Published
09/23/2024 at 22:57
Updated
09/23/2024 at 23:03
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