Confined to a room sealed with tape and plastic sheets against poison gas, yet still wearing gas masks, thousands of Israelis enduring the Scud missile blitz depend on their ears to let them know what’s happening.
Their radios are the source of official information and instructions. But most people are tuned to more immediate sounds, after four weeks of intermittent missile attacks that have injured hundreds and damaged over 7,000 homes in the Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan areas.
If, two minutes after the alert sirens sound, the now-familiar “whoosh” of a Patriot anti-missile missile has not been heard, people can be fairly certain that whatever was incoming is not headed in their direction.
But every time the Patriots make their noisy way skyward, there are a few tense seconds of listening. The midair explosion of a Patriot intercepting a Scud presages a shower of debris that can cause heavy damage and casualties.
Some people relax when they hear the earsplitting blast of a Scud warhead. They are convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the louder the explosion the more likely it is that the Scud carried a conventional warhead.
No one has yet heard the sound a chemical warhead makes, and all hope they never will.
Brig. Gen. Nachman Shai, the Israel Defense Force’s official spokesman, insists that the threat of gas attack is very real and that in the event of one, a gas-proof room in one’s home is the safest place to be.
KIDS WHOSE FAMILIES FLED TAUNTED
Shai’s voice has become Israel’s most familiar, heard on the air immediately after sirens sound. When a missile hits, it is Shai who assures the public that “experts are on their way to or already at the impact site to ascertain the type of missile fired.”
When it is confirmed the missile is conventional, as all have been so far, the country is released from shelter region by region.
Residents of the affected area — mainly Greater Tel Aviv — are told they can remove their gas masks. But they are instructed to remain in the sealed rooms a while longer, probably to keep them from going out to inspect the damage and interfering with rescue work.
The stouthearted residents of Tel Aviv Ramat Gan and adjacent townships designated Area 1 by the civil defense, are proud that they have toughed out more than a dozen missile strikes since Jan. 18. They look down with disdain on those who have fled the city for safer parts.
Now that children have returned to school kids who were evacuated by their parents after the first missile attack face the merciless scorn of classmates who stayed. It will be even worse for the youngsters who were taken abroad “for the duration” and did not share the experience of the missile blitz with their peers.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
