Beachwood residents Ronna and Joel Fox got a text on the afternoon of March 9 from their daughter Shani with the words, “I’m fine.”
Fox, 20, was visiting a close Israeli friend in Ashdod, Israel, about 25 miles southwest of Tel Aviv, when Palestinian terrorists fired rockets on the coastal town.
“We then went online to see why she might be telling us she’s fine and discovered that there was some activity in the south,” Joel Fox said. “Obviously, any parent would be concerned, but the fact that she texted us, and could do so, and immediately made sure to say ‘I’m fine’ helps you relax right away. We knew she was with friends who were responsible.”
Terrorist groups in Gaza began launching a barrage of rockets on Israel after Israel killed Zuhair al-Qaissi, leader of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza. Israel Defense Forces official said they believed al-Qaissi was planning a terrorist strike in Israel. In four days of attack, more than 200 rockets were fired from Gaza on Israel.
At least 27 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attacks. The majority of those killed were terrorists, including 14 from Islamic Jihad, according to the IDF. At least eight Israelis and foreign workers in Israel were wounded, including two seriously, and dozens have been treated for shock, according to reports.
Shani Fox, a junior at the University of Rochester in New York, is studying abroad in Tel Aviv this semester.
After eating Shabbat dinner with her host family in Ashdod, Fox was talking with her friend about the three terrorists in Gaza killed by an airstrike earlier that day.
“He said retaliations had been started,” Fox said. “He thought we had some time before anything even reached close to here.”
An hour after that conversation, the first airstrike alarm sounded.
“I’ve never heard it before, so obviously the first thing that goes through my mind is not that it’s a siren,” she said. “I thought it was a car alarm. I looked at (my friend). His face went white.
“I knew I was about to experience my first rocket attack.”
Fox and her host family quickly retreated into a bomb shelter. Once the siren quieted down, everyone started listening for the booms.
“We heard six hits,” Fox said. “The last one was very close.”
Over the next 24 hours, six more sirens sounded.
“The family had serious talks about taking me home because they didn’t want me to experience it any more,” Fox said. “The sad thing is that this is their reality. This is their culture; this is part of their life.”
However, the booms they heard during the attack weren’t hits. The sounds came from Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepting the incoming rockets.
“It was like a miracle in action,” Fox said. “I was so grateful to those soldiers for that Iron Dome. They’re protecting us without even realizing it.”
Fox said her experience in Ashdod only made her more fired up over the issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It’s not that my views have changed politically about what I want for the future and for peace in Israel,” Fox said. “However, before I was always interested in the news, but I would wait for someone to tell me. These past few days I’ve been only reading news.
“I’m still very grounded in what I believe and what I believe should happen, however, I’m much more involved at this point,” she said.
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