Life in Israel under the shadow of Hamas’s rockets

Midway through coffee a soldier came running in. ‘Tzeva adom!’ ‘Red colour!’ Cups clattered, chairs shrieked across slate floor. There is a calm exodus to an improvised bomb shelter — the cafe’s concrete reinforced bathroom. Soldiers at the front, paramedics behind, civilians at the back. Two dozen faces are lit by the insistent flashes of Red Alert, an app that warns of incoming fire. The foreigners quip nervously, the locals tut at the inconvenience. After a few minutes, the all clear is given and diners return to their lunch. It is 1.02pm and another rocket has just hit Israel. 

We are at Yad Mordechai junction, four kilometres from the 1949 armistice line — the border between Israel and Gaza. This is the second time in 30 minutes that we have had to flee from a Hamas rocket. Both times, a public announcement system sounded: the factual tone announcing ‘red colour’ is deemed less psychologically damaging than constant air raid sirens.