“Close to a million Israelis in southern Israel are currently experiencing something reminiscent of the blitz on a daily basis, as Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip fire rockets indiscriminately at their homes. The rest of the county is following rocket by rocket via round the clock TV and radio broadcasts and social media.

This is what you see when you turn on the evening news or switch on the radio in Israel. Correspondent follows correspondent based in Sderot, Beerhseva, Ashkelon and Ashdod. They report on the last time the sirens sounded and how many explosions they heard. They try to distinguish the noise of an incoming rocket being intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, and the noise of a rocket making impact. Then they promise to report back with news of any casualties, and it’s on to the next town. We might see the same reporter twenty minutes later outside a damaged building, often interviewing shocked residents or police, marvelling at the fortune of their survival. Sometimes the news is more tragic, as an in a house in the town in Kiryat Malachi where three Israelis were killed by a direct hit on Thursday.

Frequently the live report will be interrupted by the siren sounding whilst the reporter is in mid-sentence, causing them to make their hasty excuses before running for cover. Then the anchor will introduce reports made earlier in the day. Footage of kindergarten children huddled in bomb shelter; security officers pulling the twisted remains of an Iranian supplied artillery rocket out of the ground; angry residents within the 40 km range of the rockets asking when the government is going to sort out the problem. During peak periods of rocket fire schools close completely, and if kids can’t go to school, many of their parents can’t go to work.”

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