Please stay safe, both of you. This is a very troubling time and it must be very scary to be where you are.

Be sure you and family are in a garage under a sturdy building. I am praying for the MRPs, and my longtime pal Dovster. I really am. Have commented on FB too

Last night is a bit of a fog. I don’t remember if it was 3x or 4x we went to the underground garage. We got 4 hours of sleep after the last warning.

For the first few alerts we had advance notice. On the last one, we didn’t have notice and saw and heard interceptors overhead. I am very greatful that my daughter slept through all of the alerts and was a champ. We heard explosions but are unsure if they were impacts or interceptions.

This morning has been quiet. We went to a nearby park that has a shelter. Now we are visiting friends who live 10 minutes walk away so the kids and adults can socialize and maintain a routine.

I have an appointment with a specialist for tomorrow morning. It took me two months to get this appointment but I am cancelling it. His office is about a two-hour drive for me (in each direction) and I consider it foolish to be in a car for that long until the fighting is over.

Tonight (Israel time):

23:04: I am told that a rocket attack in my area is possible and I should stay near a shelter.

23:28: I am told to enter the shelter immediately. I do so and almost immediately start hearing explosions, some of which shook my house.

23:36: I am told that the explosions we are hearing are from the IDF shooting.

23::48 I am told that the danger is over (in my area ans 3:43: I receive a notification that I can leave both the shelter and the area near it.

Dov and Mrp Alert הישארו בטוחים חברים שלי

what does this mean? I can’t read Hebrew.

Have you heard of Google Translate? Just copy and paste.

We had 2 visits to the shelter last night. For the first alert around 11pm, we tried out a new shelter at a community center / school by us because it offered air conditioning. It was cramped and full. Our neighbors were supposed to join us, but it turned out there are 2 shelters there and we were at the lower location and they were at the upper location. Cell signal was bad, the AC struggled with the volume of people, and WiFi was poor. We smartly placed our daughter in her stroller and she slept through the whole interaction.

The second alert occurred at 230am and we returned to the underground parking garage. Our daughter was wide awake and played with our upstairs neighbor who is her adopted big brother. We heard interceptions as we entered the shelter, but it was uneventful otherwise. Once we got the all clear, we went home and got back to sleep pretty soon.

I live in Central Tel Aviv. There is likely damage around military HQ 1 mile away, 5-10 miles south where the impact occurred in Bat Yam as well as around Haifa 50 miles away.

The rest of the country is completely intact and normal. My heart aches for the Arab and Jewish families killed and injured. It is quieter than during COVID as most businesses are shut. The almost 24/7 Golda Ice Cream shop by us is even closed.

Likely visiting friends again during the day to keep our toddler occupied before another night of attacks.

Dov..I hope you have a garage or cellar under where you live. I shall check this page often for your wellbeing, MRP's and my other FT friends from Israel.

It means "stay safe my friends"...I just looked it up on Google since someone wouldn't provide translation for those of us who don't know Hebrew.

I have a room made of re-inforced concrete, which would protect me against anything short of a direct hit. It was built about 10 years ago and a few months ago the regional council decided that it is not sufficient against modern missiles. They told me that they will build a new, underground, shelter for me -- but it might take about 3 years until they do it.

Today, I had a more immediate problem. I am close friends with a Russian family (father, mother, daughter age 9 and daughter age 17. The parents have both lost their jobs as their employers have gone out of business because of the war. I phoned them early this afternoon and reached the mother who was shopping in a supermarket. It is about 3 kilometers from their house, and they have no car, the father has severe back problems, so she couldn't buy very much to carry home (to their 4th floor apartment). I told her to wait for me, drove there, and when I arrived, told her to fill up the shopping cart with enough food to last at least a week, paid for it, drove her home, and then headed to my house. Literally moments after I parked by car, I received an alert to enter a shelter immediately. As my house is about a 5 minute walk from where I parked, I was in a bit of a panic until I got home -- and less than 5 minutes later got an "all clear" message.

Dovster......Oh thank God. I hope you all have enough to hunker down for a while. I am glad you xled that appointment you had. Not a good idea right now. I hope the Russian couple will be safe too. As it says, "/stay safe my friend". xo

Ngl I’m less thrilled about the high school birth rite program that my son hopes to do next summer with his fellow Jewish friends. That said, when I did my international summer (6 weeks) abroad program at a similar high school summer era as my son, there were also general global fears with terror and other war issues. Obviously parents now are concerned for their kids who are doing this equivalent now in Israel. It’ll be tough and what choice is there - the way Boeing and USA ATC is going, any of our upcoming USA domestic flights can end in tragedy.

Dovster remains a great mensch for the continued support for the Russian family. We flyertalks wish our fellow FTers safety and wellness in Israel. Thank you for the updates.

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Thank you! This is super.

Stay safe. Thinking of you all.