Preparing our family Friday dinner yesterday, we had one air raid siren compelling us to go into the safe room. So far, we’ve been able to turn off the oven or the stovetop without ruining a cake or a pot of rice when sirens sound. Life on the privileged side of this war.

True confession: Despite reassuring those inquiring from abroad that we are “staying safe,” we cut corners. To properly close the iron window in the safe room which we sealed only almost perfectly since last Saturday, we need to remove the sliding shutters. We’ve done it many times when subject to repeated air raid sirens. We removed them last June. Placing them back on track is tedious, so we left them in place. We were remiss in properly closing the door too. The handle mechanism seems loose internally – and Haim was rightfully concerned we could lock ourselves in.

In June, when attacked by Iran, we had the same door handle issue. Then, we often ran to the shelter at the nearby school. We were more fearful. There were more missiles. The vibe was more terrifying. Or less familiar than attacks from Gaza.

Since the October 2025 ceasefire, the anxiety of when action would resume grew........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)