Only in Israel #234234 Swords of Iron

After a long morning working on a farm in incredibly windy conditions our group stopped at the petrol station in kibbutz Kfar Azza for a loo break.

Along the horizon, behind the fields of the kibbutz you can just about make out the white buildings of Gaza's urban skyline on the other side of the border.

As the bus parked the red alert apps on most people's phones went off, though not mine.

For a second we all made the calculation of Gaza border + phone red alert = we must be under attack.

Except that there was no Red Alert in Kfar Azza. I was with a group from the Rishon Letzion area and their phones were pinging because rockets had been fired at central Israel with sirens in and around Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv.
In Kfar Azza and the Otef it was calm and safe, no alerts.

We heard the very occasional boom of distant artillery from the war in Gaza.

Most people have their phones set to get noisy siren alerts for where they live, where they work, maybe where they have family.

As this was a group from Rishon Letzion and nearby areas their phones went off while my phone stayed silent.

We were standing in today's calm, quiet of Kfar Azza, along the infamous Route 232, ground zero for some of the most horrific events of October 7 2023 with everyone phoning their family in the Rishon Letzion area and Tel Aviv to check that they're OK because Hamas has just fired rockets from Khan Yunis in south-central Gaza toward central Israel.