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How One Evacuee From Israel’s North Has Found Normalcy During War — With the Help of Her Temporary Hotel Home
Men chat at a building site as Lebanon is seen in the background, in Liman, close the the Lebanese border in northern Israel, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Shir Torem
Bringing a sense of normalcy during times of war can be tough, particularly for the more than 100,000 evacuees from Israel’s north and south living in hotels since the outbreak of war with Hamas in October. Shula Giladi, 70, from Moshav Shtula in northern Israel, is one of those finding light in these dark times.
Forced from her home on the Lebanese border due to the intense security risk from Hezbollah rocket fire, Giladi and members of her community have been living at the Royal Beach Hotel in Tel Aviv, a property of the Israeli hotel chain Isrotel, which has hosted thousands of evacuees in their properties across the country.
Giladi told The Algemeiner that prior to the war, which erupted with Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border raid into southern Israel from Gaza, she was running a successful culinary business in her hometown called Shula Mastula, catering traditional kosher Kurdish food to visitors from Israel and abroad. She served her food fresh from her garden, while singing traditional songs and telling stories about her life. “I love my kitchen; I love people — I know how to interact with them,” she said, describing her passion for the business.
However, when the war broke out, Giladi was forced to abandon both her home of the last 55 years and her business, bringing her to Tel Aviv where she has been living ever since. This was of course not easy, she said, remarking that “three months away from home is not simple.”
Conflict for Giladi, though, was not new, as she had been living for decades near the contentious Israel-Lebanon border, where the presence of soldiers and the potential for war was the norm. “Forever our view was the soldiers. The soldiers are a part of life,” she said.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group that wields significant influence in Lebanon, has intensified along the border since the eruption of conflict in Hamas-ruled Gaza, forcing Israelis to leave their homes under threat of rocket fire.
As the weeks passed since evacuating, Giladi explained, “I had to return to myself and a feeling of home. It was hard to just think about the war.” To make that a reality, the staff at the Royal Beach allowed her to set up a pop-up shop, selling the food she had been making for so many years at her home in Shtula.
The current arrangement allows Giladi to cook dishes from the hotel’s kitchen such as kubeh soup, stuffed grape leaves, beef meatballs, special pickles, among others to those eager to dine or bring home food for the weekend. Open on Thursdays from 11 am to 3 pm and Fridays from 9 am to 1 pm, she charges 25-30 NIS (about $6.50-$8.00) per dish, giving her the ability to earn a living even though her business cannot currently operate.
“I want to thank Isrotel and the hotel for giving me the ability to earn … All they can do to help they have done,” she said. “I feel it and all the other evacuees feel it … We really feel at home.”
According to the hotel’s head chef, Eitan Mizrachi, the shop has been a huge hit. “The pilot sold out every dish. People came and bought and said how good and special the food was,” he said. “It’s very tasty — if it wasn’t it would [still] be there. The food is also so pretty.”
Giladi is grateful to those whom come. “Which country gives such a big hug to its citizens?” she said. “I do not have any words.”
Still, Giladi and the members of her community are ready to return home. “My whole life is there,” she said. “Everyone is ready and waiting.”
The post How One Evacuee From Israel’s North Has Found Normalcy During War — With the Help of Her Temporary Hotel Home 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.