Shabbat rocket attack

This from Maxine:

Here i am, 8:45 a.m., in a deep sleep when all of a sudden, I hear a siren. I thought I was dreaming until I realized it was real...Shani came bursting into our room, Rafi and iIjumped up, I ran for my sweater which had been strategically placed when all this started months ago (in case I am in my p.j.s and have to evacuate the house), Yehiel, shani's boyfriend, half asleep and not used to this because he lives in Jerusalem, following behind. This siren was a double one and we all ran, dogs following.

Before we got to our "safe place" (a hallway downstairs), and before my mother-in-law could get out of bed, there was a tremendous "boom" followed by a softer one; we knew it was close, thinking it might have been a few blocks behind us. Tal is usually the one to find out first where it fell but he was already on his way to work about 20 minutes north of here. The softer boom fell in the industrial area of the city, on the southern side and not close to us.

Just for good measure, and as instructed by homefront command, we stayed put for about 2 more minutes (they say 5 but who has the patience?) and then the phone started ringing. The grad fell on the campus of the school i used to teach at - a 10 minute walk from here and a 3 minute car drive. According to the news, there's been some structural damage and 7 people are being treated for shock. there are apartment buildings all around the school. nice ones.

We heard the sirens of the emergency vehicles and then everyone, but me, went back to sleep which is what they're all doing now. Lucky them!

I don't know if this is the start of hostilities all over again, although there have been 101 missiles shot in the area from Gaza up to ashkelon (but always up to the outskirts of the city) till now.

Upper echelon municipality workers were all called in to the city's "war room" (an underground, protected room with computers, maps, phones to the army, etc).

Who has the strength to go through all this again?

Well, better get the Oreos ready.

Thursday update from Maxine Dorot

Things have calmed down here in Ashkelon..."only" 3 grads yesterday and 3 or 4 the day before. One fell where I teach but didn't explode and it took about an hour to get it out of the earth (and about 45 minutes just to find where it had landed in the first place). Another miracle since there were people in school...albeit on a much smaller scale.

We hear the continuous "thumping" of Israel artillery, day and night, either from the navy in the sea or from the canons on land and I can tell the difference. And today we can see the smoke billowing out of Gaza skies. We must have hit something big.

We're taking longer showers, although not by much, but we still sleep with our slippers strategically placed so that we can just whoosh out of bed in the middle of the night and pour out feet into them so that we can rush for cover.

We're still driving with windows open to hear an alarm, seat belts off so we can get out of the car faster, and windows open at night so we can hear a siren should it go off. Word is that before a cease fire goes into effect, Hamas (which stands for Hiding Among Mosques And Schools) will let rip everything they still have to go down in a blaze of glory.

The sun gives a false sense of security; we're all bracing for the big finish. I hope we can go back to school on Sunday but still don't know since my schools do not have enough shelters for all the students and staff.

The sun was shining today and a few people actually were doing their power walks and jogs, but very few. Kids are still not outside playing and people who do food shopping, are stocking up on goods and getting out of the shop in record time.

The first thing I do when this is over is go on a diet! That's it from here.Shabbat Shalom from Ashkelon,Maxine

Today....Maxine's report

Report from Maxine Dorot, an Ashkelon resident of a missile fall a few hours ago: Ashkelon: 19:04 There we were, a sunny Monday morning, averaging maybe one grad/hour from about 10:30 the morning. And once again, the siren wails, we run downstairs under a hallway in my mother-in-law's house. My neice and one of my sons were with here and just as this parade of Dorots gets to the hall, this enormous "BOOM!" shakes the house. "It's here!" my son and husband yell together. "Nobody move!" We waited for less than a minute (although you have to wait 5 but we couldn't) and ran outside, noticing that the window over the kitchen sink had a huge hole in it and what was left was all cracked. Smoke was coming from the houses across the street and at first, we thought it was there. Then we thought it had landed around our friends' house behind those houses and knowing Miki was alone and on the hysterical side, ran over to her house. By the time we got to the corner, sirens, ambulance, police, Home Front Command, t.v., cameramen, neighbors I hadn't seen for years and neighbors I had never seen in my life, you name it, were already there and the police were taping the site with red tape, like the kind they use at a crime scene (well, it is a crime...). We ran across the street to Miki's and by the time we got there, not more than 5 minutes after the grad had landed, teams of Home Front Command were already going door to door to see if everyone was okay. Amazing! After making sure our friend was okay (her husband had to leave his car 2 blocks away and walk because the street was full of service vehicles) we made our way back home but of course, I had to see what was going on. The grad had landed only a few feet from the last house on the street, one owned by a rabbi and his wife (daughter of the city rabbi) and I kept staring and repeating "It's a miracle" because it was. It's also the route we take daily when walking the dog at night. A miracle. A tiny bit to the left or right, a little bit more to the east or west and it would have landed on a house....maybe even mine! As I was standing there, I was approached by a Brazilian newsman (Global TV) who asked if he could speak to me. The first thing I thought of was "Aww! No make-up!" but what the heck, no one in Brazil knows me. Suddenly, in the middle of our interview, there was another alarm and everyone ran, literally, for his life. I followed some Home Front people and we ran into the yard of a house and crouched low; others just went down, flat on the ground, hands over their heads. It was like being in a movie. Totally surreal and unreal. There may have been, 30 seconds earlier, 60-70 people on site and within seconds, everyone had scrambled and except for the 3 on the ground, there wasn't anyone there. After the all-clear, only some of the crowd went back towards "my grad" while the rest went running up the road towards the 2nd one which had fallen in a neighborhood about 6 minutes away by car. My phone started ringing and it was my husband screaming, "Where are you? Get home!" and this time I did. Fast. We've gotten invitations from so many people to stay with them til this is over, people we know well, vaguely or not at all, and this is what makes this country special. Meanwhile we're here. We figure the statistics are on our side, but if we do leave, it'll be to a hotel somewhere in the country that gives special rates to refugees from the north. And I'll make sure it's a 5 star one. Maxine ----------------------------------- There is an article in www.ashkelonim.co.il that Ehud Barak rented an apartment in Ashkelon, and furnished it with furniture he bought in Ashkelon at the popular furniture store Tiv Rehitim. You can see a photo of the bedroom suite that he purchased on the site. We are wondering if and when he will spend the night here? http://www.ashkelonim.co.il/index.php?act=articles&id=3111