In Ashkelon, which lies 8 kilometres from the Gaza border, Israeli strikes are clearly audible. When the siren sounds, citizens have just 10 seconds to take cover, local resident Anna Galitsina told Izvestia on 9 October.
"When (the sirens) go off, we go to the stairwell if we're sleeping at night because we don't have time to run to a dedicated fallout shelter. We only have 10 seconds given that we're pretty close. But even the stairwell area is quite safe," Anna confided.
"So many people ask us how safe we are. I don't know how to answer that question," she said.
Earlier in the day, Tel Aviv resident Eugenia Berger demonstrated how the fallout shelter set up in her apartment works. The shelter is closed with a fireproof door made of metal and the windows of the special room are protected by shutters.
On October 7, Israel was hit by a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. In response, the Israeli side began to hit targets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant declares war on Palestinian militants and announces the launch of Operation Iron Swords, the first phase of which has already been completed. On 8 October it was announced that Israel was officially entering a 'state of war'.
On the evening of 8 October, the Israeli army said it had hit some 800 targets in the Gaza Strip. According to the army, it attacked about 120 targets in the vicinity of Beit Hanoun, an area it says serves as a "terrorist nest" for Hamas.
According to the latest figures, the number of Palestinian casualties since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict with Israel is 413 and 2 300 injured. The death toll in Israel since the Hamas attack has exceeded 600 and more than 2 000 people have been injured.
The Palestinians are seeking that the future borders between the two countries should follow the borders that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War, with a possible land swap. Palestine intends to establish its state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
IZVTSTIA/RoZ
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