By Laurina Driesse

Amid the constant sirens across Israel warning of incoming missiles from Iran, the ICEJ AID team bravely travelled from Jerusalem to Arad and Dimona recently to see the damage from two direct hits on residential neighbourhoods in these Negev desert towns. Some 175 people were injured in the powerful blasts, which also left all the local residents in both places in tremendous shock.

The ICEJ team’s mission was clear – to meet the people and offer comfort and support from Christians to those who lost their homes in the devastating barrage of missiles that horrific night.

In Arad, the team met Marina, an immigrant to Israel some 30 years ago. Although she is retired and receives a pension, she still must work two jobs to support herself. Marina has witnessed many wars, but nothing could have prepared her for what she experienced that night of 22 March.

The day began with numerous sirens in the morning and again in the evening. Every time a rocket warning sounded, Marina made her way from her 4th floor apartment to the public shelter on the ground floor. Around 9:30 that evening, she heard the early alert on her phone and rushed to enter the shelter once more. No sooner had the door closed behind her, the neighbourhood siren wailed and in the same instant there was a loud boom.

“The missile hit during the siren”, Marina recounted. “We were inside with children. The blast’s force almost knocked us over. We were sitting on chairs when suddenly we fell to the floor. It was a huge explosion, and everything was filled with grey dust. We didn’t understand what had happened at first, but we knew something terrible had occurred.”

They waited several minutes for the “all-clear” alert before leaving the shelter, only to discover everything covered in dust.

“I always keep a bag ready with my documents and medicines, and I had it with me”, she added. “At that moment, I thought—this is it. But I told myself: ‘I’m alive’.”

Making her way back up to her apartment, she could barely open her front door. An unbelievable sight awaited her.

“There were no windows. One wall was gone. Everything—clothes, furniture—was covered in soot. Everything was destroyed. You couldn’t use anything anymore. Even the stairwell was covered in soot. There was nothing left to save”, she lamented.

“Outside, there were fires, ambulances, Home Front Command forces everywhere”, she continued. “When we saw the surrounding buildings, there were no windows, no walls—nothing. Many people were injured. Families, children, women—everyone was crying.”

Not far away in Dimona, the ICEJ Aid team met Laila, who described a similar experience that same Shabbat evening. When the alarm blared, she made her way quickly to an underground shelter about 30 meters from her home. Usually, she has 90 seconds to get her family to safety, but not this time.

“As soon as we went into the shelter, we felt an explosion. During the siren, the missile fell”, Laila recalled. “People were thrown by the blast. My son was thrown by the blast. Plaster fell on us from the ceiling of the shelter. Everything was filled with dust, white like fog. We couldn’t even breathe. We were sure the missile had fallen on us. It is a shelter under the ground, and we said, ‘That’s it, we’re under the rubble. We’re done for.’ I checked on my children to make sure they were okay, and my mom was with me too.”

“Suddenly, I saw so many people had fainted; children, women with babies in their arms, had fainted. It wasn’t easy. Although, thank God, we weren’t hurt. We weren’t injured physically, but we went through serious trauma,” she explained.

Laila added that her five-year-old son has become so anxious whenever an alarm sounds, he is even afraid to go to the bathroom alone for fear he will be left there.

“We are constantly on edge, shoes by the door, coat ready, so you can just run to the shelter. A very, very hard experience where we felt we were between life and death. Exactly like that,” she said.  

After the explosion that night, they could hardly breathe from all the dust as they made their way upstairs from the shelter.

“Many rescue workers entered the shelter, and then we realised there was a way out. We weren’t buried”, Laila recounted. “We went up, and it looked like an apocalypse. Houses on fire and glass everywhere. It was full of rescue teams. Someone shouting, ‘Bring a stretcher here! Injured people here! Bring a team!’ We felt like it was the end of the world.”

On her way home, she saw three of her four windows shattered, and all their belongings and children’s clothes covered in glass. “Thank God it was only property,” said Laila.

With each encounter of impacted families in Arad and Dimona that day, the ICEJ team gave gift voucher cards to help them buy necessities, and shared how Christians around the world are praying and standing up for them.

Please continue to support the ICEJ’s Israel in Crisis fund, which enables us to help those most impacted by the recent war with Iran. Donate today.

Photos: All ICEJ

Please watch this video of the ICEJ Aid team’s visit to Arad and Dimona.

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