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The View From an Israeli Bomb Shelter: 60 Seconds to Survival
A drone photo shows the damage over residential homes and a school at the impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Bnei Brak, Israel, June 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Chen Kalifa
In the 1970s, I arrived in Israel as an exchange student from Berkeley. The country was still reeling from the Yom Kippur War — having narrowly escaped annihilation. Confidence was shattered, every household had felt loss, and the optimism of 1967 felt like a distant memory.
What struck me at the time was how so many Israelis in the prime of life were desperate for any visa — especially to the US — as a way to escape runaway inflation and collective despair.
Today, circumstances couldn’t be more different. Despite being under siege by ballistic missiles, hundreds of thousands of Israelis –abroad for holidays, studies, or business — are now desperately trying to return. Observers have noted that this is the only country at war where people are racing to come home.
Those who are able to return are being greeted by a reality like my own experience last Sunday night — when a missile landed just a hundred yards from my front door.
I was below ground in a reinforced concrete bomb shelter, but its steel doors rattled like a tin can during impact. When I emerged in the pre-dawn light, my familiar neighborhood near Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market was unrecognizable: glass littered the streets, debris was piled around shattered homes, and storefronts were heavily damaged. In my sandals, I helped elderly neighbors walk back to their flats, treading as carefully as possible through the glittering shards.
Adrenaline kept me going, but as daylight fell and I absorbed the scale of destruction, the weight of the night hit home. My daughter, in New York, called in tears. “The airport is closed — how will you get out of there?” she sobbed. I responded firmly: “Should 7 million Jews pack up and go? I could do that, but you’ll have to say goodbye to your future.”
These past few days have been an exhausting blur of sirens, shelter drills, and rehearsed routines. Our neighborhood — laced with 1930s Bauhaus structures — was never built for war. After October 7, rocket barrages from Gaza became the norm. But now the threat has escalated far beyond that.
When the sirens sound, my wife and I have only 60 to 90 seconds: shoes on, phones in hand, down three flights of stairs, into the street, and into a nearby public shelter. Even in deep sleep, muscle memory guides us to safety without thought. What once felt almost routine — trusting the Iron Dome to intercept rockets — now seems fragile in comparison.
The reason is stark: Iran’s Fattah‑1 hypersonic ballistic missiles are changing the game.
Traveling at speeds up to Mach 13–15, equipped with maneuverable gliding warheads, they often evade interception systems. Launched hundreds of times, they are specifically targeted at civilian centers. While Israel’s multi-layered defenses — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow — still intercepts most missiles, those that get through inflict serious damage, sometimes even striking designated safe rooms.
Fortunately, because these missiles come from long range, our phones buzz early — giving us those precious extra seconds to reach shelter before the local sirens blare.
Inside the shelter, an unexpected sense of community emerges. Elderly neighbors shuffle in anxiously, attempting to navigate steps under duress. Meanwhile, children born shortly before and after October 7 — some mere toddlers when conflict erupted — play confidently, chattering with each other, hugging dogs, and passing toys. Their eyes show not terror but determination and spirit. These are the children of Israel: enduring, brave, noble.
I’ve witnessed Israel’s journey — from the despair of the 1970s through its revival, and now this current test. We are standing under a barrage of missiles, yet refusing to sacrifice either our values or our indigenous homeland to hate-driven terror.
There is no question that these hypersonic missiles fundamentally alter our security assumptions. They undermine systems designed for slower threats, strain the resilience of shelter infrastructure built to older standards, and force us to rehearse survival in a way we never imagined. Yet even as threats evolve, so do we — fastening shoes, teaching children to run, organizing neighbors, maintaining routine in the ruins. We show up, day after day.
In this shelter — not by accident, but by conviction — we are proclaiming to the world: we are here. We are unbowed. We will stay.
Dr. Ron Katz is President of the Tel Aviv Institute. He can be reached at tlvi.org
The post The View From an Israeli Bomb Shelter: 60 Seconds to Survival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.