It was just a normal day of war, wasn't it?

How long will Israel's new "normal" last?

Just a “normal” day

Day before yesterday, 14 October 2024, from 7 a.m. until 10:41 that night. In all, there were 20 separate alert events that included over 400 alerts in the north (Hezbollah) and 25 in the south (Hamas).

The IDF Telegram Channel reports that 115 missiles and drones were launched in those attacks. Most of these were intercepted successfully and all I could find about damage caused by hits was a fire that broke out in an open area.

That day was a good day.

Not following Home Front Guidelines?

I suppose that because the war is going on for so long, some people are becoming careless. Here is an example of what can happen when people do not follow Home Front directives to remain in shelter for a full ten minutes after alerts are sounded.

This is one of three close-call clips I saw and edited for clarity. On 1 Oct 24, when Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, a man was killed — a Gazan in Jericho, who was flattened by a piece of falling shrapnel. One would think that that would have been enough to keep people inside for the full ten minutes.

14 Oct began with my city being sent to shelters.

Note the times for each alert event.

Notice that there were two major alerts in Haifa and I managed to go to pilates class in my neighbourhood and get home and showered between these two. As you know from another article I wrote, showering is not a given in Israel at this time.

Yesterday was easy for me — only one alert that, however, caught me when I was driving within Haifa. As instructed, I stopped the car and lay down in the adjacent thorn-filled dusty field. In fact, it was a quieter day for the whole country, with ONLY 174 alerts.

So far today, there have been only 34 alerts. While I would like to think that this augers well for the future, that it means that Hezbollah is out of steam, I am not confident that it will not suddenly change again for the worse.

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