Wednesday, Day 5

It was another quiet day in Jerusalem, and in our neighborhood a limited number of shops and restaurants were open. People were out and about, old, young, families with children, people walking dogs, under a brilliant blue sky. I went out a few times to the hardware store and supermarket, needing some fresh air and a chance to see life beyond the walls of our apartment.

Our apartment is in a building probably built during the Templar era. It was originally two stories, and a third was added in the 1970's. Each floor is its own apartment, ours is on the second or middle floor. The apartment on street level has lovely gardens in front and back, with flowering trees and other plantings. Along the walkway to enter our part of the building, there are fruit trees: pomegranate, pomelo, apricot, and cherry, which give welcome shade to the path. Our upstairs neighbors are Americans who have been here for 30+ years and raised their kids here. Our downstairs neighbor is a Brit who rarely comes.  We invited our neighbors to join us for dinner, which was interrupted by an alert to go to the shelter. It turned out to be a false alarm.

I am thankful for the peaceful feeling of our building which is helpful during this horrific time. There have been 5,000 rockets fired at Israel. There have been at least 1200 Israelis killed, almost 200 soldiers have fallen. 2700 hundred people have been wounded. 150 people are still missing. The news here has shown soldiers loading the bodies found at Kfar Aza into trucks. They have reported on the complete destruction of towns in the south, burnt out cars, bullet holes and bloodshed on what used to be a small pastoral village. They are eyewitnesses to the cruel methods used to slaughter babies, families, grandparents. 

Today there were many sirens in the south and north. Lebanon is sending drones over the border and people were in their shelters for about an hour in the early evening. If you are watching CNN, you might have seen an interview with Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin whose son Hersh is missing from the desert festival. They lived in Berkeley and we know them,  impossible to imagine what they are going through.

If you would like to get news from an Israeli source, there is a station that broadcasts in English. The website is https://www.i24news.tv/en. Some of the content is free, and you can subscribe to the live broadcast for $4.99 a month. There are no commercials, just news and commentary. 

Israel has formed an emergency unity government which will enable Benny Gantz, a former defense minister to join the wartime cabinet. Hopefully they will be able to work together to plan the next moves in this nightmare.

 There were kids in our neighborhood giving out Israeli flags, and there is a call to stand on the balconies each night at 9 pm and sing Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem. Small gestures for hope and solidarity, contributing to the resilience of the Israeli people.

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