We were in and out of our communal shelter! Our apartment block is a diverse mix of the faces of Israel: Haredi, Traditional, Secular and Muslim. Over last Shabbat, when the war broke out, and the sirens began to wail at ear piercing level, there were more than 50 of us in our shelter.

For the uninitiated, what happens to set off this process – and the rapid beating of our heart, is that we first get an extremely noisy alert, an initial warning, on our mobile phones, from our amazing Home Front Command, informing us that a rocket and missile attack is imminent – and that we need to be prepared.

In the next stage, a few minutes later, another siren goes off on our phones –  and if the missile is headed in our direction, loud sirens blast outside, and just in case one may be hard of hearing – or in denial (!), in unmistakable red, bold print on our phones, we are told to get to the shelter immediately. Simultaneously, on TV, all the........

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