Plucky little Israel shows grace under pressure

As I write this, sirens have resumed after a five hour UN brokered Humanitarian Window truce. This would allow for Gazan civilians to receive much needed humanitarian aid in the form of food, medicine and other supplies.

Earlier today, rumours were rife of a possible ceasefire scheduled to take place from 6am on the 18th of July. There is NO truce scheduled – just wishful thinking. Today’s truce was longer than yesterday’s which lasted a whole 12 minutes. Hamas have made their intentions very very clear and Israel has called up a further 8000 troops bring the total to 56 000.

Tuesday night loud booms rocked the centre of the country including Modiin. Iron Dome did its thing intercepting long range missiles and the blast shook buildings and I have to say I jumped out of my skin with fright. We recorded the loudest intercept over Tel Aviv in all of the conflagration.

Yesterday children from Gan Yavne enjoyed some respite from sirens and booms by spending time in Modiin’s municipal pool. The city of Modiin is opening its arms to our Iron Dome soldiers as well, feeding them and doing their laundry as they cannot leave their towers.

Israelis are remarkably resilient, warm and generous in this very tense time. One thing is for sure, this plucky little country is the very example of grace under pressure.

Am Yisrael Chai. 

• Rolene Marks made Aliyah in 2010 and lives in Modiin. She is a regular contributor to SAJR-Online and her BLOGS and OTHER WRITINGS can be found at these links. She is a member of SA’s Media Team Israel and she can be heard on Chai FM every Monday. Rolene will be in SA later this month to launch the brand new global Zionist Spring movement with Ruchama Avraham who will speak in CT on 22 & Joburg on 24 July. Admission is free but advanced RSVP is required from: info@zionistspring.org