Boom

It's a Hamas plot to prevent Baby from going to sleep on time. He was just nodding off this evening when the boom jolted him to sudden whimpering wide awakeness.

It was so loud and distinct I almost wondered why our local sirens hadn't gone.  Once I'd settled baby back to sleep I checked and realised I was hearing an impact from around 20-25 km away where unfortunately a building was hit and several people injured.

I think we're hearing these rocket strikes from far away because of the way our building is oriented,  we have a clear line of sight/sound in the direction of towns that have had alerts. Just hearing the booms is bad enough.

I took the kids to their usual science activity today at Rehovot's Weizman Institute of Science. They have a fantastic outdoor science museum there which is great for a one off visit, but which also offers various courses and classes for children of just about all ages.

Normally on a weekday morning we have the place to ourselves. Today it was packed, children, grown-ups, teenagers, the place was buzzing. They had opened their doors to families from the south where schools are closed due to the rocket threat. Some of the children were there in groups organised by local municipalities or youth movements, but there were also private family groups from various towns and villages in the Gaza border area.

Weizman isn't alone in opening its doors to the traumatised citizens of southern Israel. Educational centres, museums and zoos around the country have been organising similar programmes. Even schools in safer areas have been hosting students from rocket fire zones, classes hosting a few extra students, like my neighbour's sons' school where they told staff and pupils to invite any southern relatives to join their school while studies are cancelled in regions within 40km of Gaza due to the security situation.

It's the silver lining in all this craziness, the way Israelis pull together and open their hearts and homes.