Fear is rampant in Israel’s living rooms. Now neighborhood patrols are on patrol and gun shops can hardly save themselves from customers. Impressions from a country in a gun craze.
When his cell phone reported rocket fire on Tel Aviv shortly after 4 p.m., Adi Davidov slowly put aside the ladle with which he was just about to pour tomato sauce over the pizza dough. He goes into the bathroom. His wife Ilil collects the children.
Alma, 8, the little one who had trouble breathing when the sirens sounded last week, now gets into the bathtub without making a sound.
Daniel, 13, slim but already bearded, who has seen so many terrible pictures on TikTok in the last few days, leans casually against the sink next to his parents.
Adi Davidov, his wife and their children Alma, 8, and Daniel, 13, take refuge in the bathroom when rockets fire
© Yoray Liberman / star
Twin sister Ella is outside playing. She’ll find somewhere to stay.
This time too, the Iron Dome, Israel’s air defense system, will shoot Hamas’ rockets out of the sky. A dull bang can be heard from outside. “We don’t know how safe it is in the bathroom. But we feel safe,” says mother Ilil. The Davidovs wait five minutes between the toilet bowl, cosmetics cabinet and dirty laundry bag. Then everyday life in Tel Aviv continues.
The air alert may now be routine, but impacts or even injuries in the metropolis, which is a good 50 kilometers from Gaza, are the absolute exception. And yet a lot of things are falling apart within our own four walls. Fear is rampant in Israel’s living rooms.