Give me shelter

On the face of it many Israelis have returned to some kind of regular routine despite the war situation, but we are a nation in trauma, PTSD nation in a way that many outsiders don't understand or don't even see.

The Hamas attack on October 7th twisted so many things which should be safe in to things which are now dangerous.

Like the way that the public shelters you see in many places in Israel, especially near the Gaza border, which should be symbols of safety, set up all over to protect from the threat of Gaza rockets, were turned in to death traps by Hamas on October 7th.

As part of the Hamas invasion on that terrible Shabbat they fired massive numbers of rockets from Gaza in to Israel and people logically ran for cover to these public shelters, especially the hundreds and hundreds of people caught out in the open at the Nova dance festival.

And then the terrorists came and threw grenades in to the shelters full of civilians sheltering from the rockets. And fired RPGs in to shelters full of civilians seeking safety from the rockets. And fired kalashnikovs and M16s in to the shelters full of civilians seeking sanctuary. From places of safety these open public shelters became death traps where Hamas murdered and maimed hundreds of people.

Today for millions of Israelis these public shelters, many painted in cheerful colours or decorated with murals, are a symbol of the October 7th massacres.

Drive down to the Gaza border area in the weeks and months after that horrific day and you'll still see these shelters lining the roadsides where Hamas terrorists rampaged. Many of the happy bright murals adorning the stark concrete are pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel.

By the open entrances notices have been hung up indicating that this shelter has been cleared by Zaka, the volunteer organisation that ensures the respectful burial of the dead and any body parts or tissue left behind after a terror attack (or other disaster). Cryptic marking indicate whether and how many dead were found at this site.   

These open public rocket shelters are a constant reminder of what Hamas did to us, the cynical way they turned would should have been a sanctuary in to a death trap.

Each time we walk by a shelter like this. Every time we pass one on the road. The sight of one outside a hospital or by a bus stop.

They are a constant reminder of the evil atrocities Hamas perpetrated against our people that terrible day.

Most of the time the shelters I see like this are (in local terms) are nowhere near the scenes of carnage in the Gaza border areas. In the first couple of months of the war many areas of central Israel were under daily rocket bombardment too. Open public shelters like these were set up near bus stops and public areas in towns like 

A friend recently wrote about how during a visit to a local zoo with her grandchildren it started to rain. The children excitedly ran to what looked like an artificial cave but turned out to be a disguised rocket shelter. She couldn't bring herself to go in. Better to get drenched in the rain than revisit the nightmare of the public shelters of October 7th. 

Since that day there are many Israelis too traumatised by the shelter massacres to even take cover in one of these from rockets. A friend who's relatives were at the Nova festival tells me that she'd rather take her chances lying on the ground out in the open but able to run if need be than enclosed in the concrete of what was once a sanctuary but now a symbol of Hamas mass murder.