Tel Aviv and Jerusalem targeted as militants intensify rocket attacks

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/10/tel-aviv-jerusalem-targeted-rocket-attacks-gaza

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Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were both targeted by rocket fire on Thursday as Palestinian militants launched their most intense barrage against southern and central Israel since the beginning of the latest conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Many residents awoke to explosions that shook buildings even in the north of Tel Aviv, while air raid sirens sounded later in the morning forcing thousands of residents to run to bomb shelters or take refuge in the stairwells of their buildings.

Later in the day a volley of rockets was shot down in the skies over the city. On the beach in north Tel Aviv, sunbathers and swimmers stopped to gaze at the sky as Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted rockets.

Later on Thursday, residents of both Jerusalem and Bethlehem reported hearing explosions in the skies. There have been no casualties in any of the rocket attacks on Israel from Palestinian militants so far.

Iron Dome has managed to prevent any rockets landing in Tel Aviv, but the first barrage this morning saw shrapnel fall over Florentin, a trendy southern neighbourhood popular with artists, musicians and writers.

At the site where the shrapnel hit, residents' feelings were mixed. Avi Benjamin, a composer, was sitting on a bench outside his music studio just a couple of metres from the bomb site.

"It is a surreal place, Israel, do you know anywhere else in the world where this would be normal?" he said, gesturing towards the area where shrapnel had torn up some of the tarmac on a petrol station forecourt.

Benjamin, 55, added that he was not frightened to live in the southern Tel Aviv neighbourhood, where a relative proximity to Gaza means rockets are more likely to land. He added that his concern about the war with Hamas was that a more extreme group could replace them if they were to disappear. "It is not a problem to destroy Hamas, it is what comes after Hamas that worries me," he said.

Enat Yitzrach, whose convenience store is directly below where the missiles were shot down by Iron Dome and faces the petrol station where the shrapnel landed, was less calm about the morning's events.

She said she had just opened her store at 8am when the explosions started. She threw herself on the floor and waited, terrified, as the building shook and sirens wailed overhead. She recalls hearing a series of five explosions. "It was horrifying. It was just lucky that right now is the holidays and that it was too early for kids to be playing. I'm not only concerned for Florentin, but for the whole of Israel," she said.

But while parts of Tel Aviv, including the trendy Jaffa port, were notably quieter than they usually would be on a Thursday afternoon, in much of the city life went on as normal. Buses, taxis and sheruts (shared taxis) filled the city's main thoroughfares and residents took refuge from the stifling heat in cafes and restaurants.

Eytan Schwartz, a senior advisor for foreign affairs to Tel Aviv's mayor, Ron Huldai, said that Tel Aviv was ready should the situation deteriorate in the coming days.

"[We've had] three interceptions over Tel Aviv in the past 24 hours, so the city is prepared for any scenarios. There might be more missiles. We know that our military believes that there is a long-range arsenal that is not being used," he said.

The municipality had spent the last couple of days repairing public bomb sheltersand notifying residents of their location, he added. Underground car parks across the city are also being used as makeshift shelters should rocket attacks intensify.

At the same time, Schwartz said that it was a point of pride for Tel Avivis not to allow attacks to change their way of life. "I'm not trying to underplay this in any way, it is a bad thing for communities to be under a threat of missiles. Having said that, life goes on," he said. "Tel Avivis going out to a coffee shop is not just our lifestyle, it is our declaration – we are saying this is what we want to do and we will not allow anyone with a missile to disrupt that."