The northern Israeli city of Akko is still shaken after yesterday’s Hezbollah missile attack, in which the terrorist organization launched more than 200 missiles and 20 drones at northern Israel. A residential building in the mixed Arab-Jewish city was directly hit in the attack, and other buildings were damaged by falling shrapnel.
In the lobby of an apartment building near the direct hit, a group of mothers have set up a table with paper and markets. Shrapnel is spread in the yard, and tax inspectors and municipal workers survey the damage.
“I woke up by 4:30 a.m. from the alerts and we already heard explosions,” Stav, a teacher in Akko’s school system, told Davar. “I woke up my mom, and while walking down to the shelter we saw an interception missile fired. We were caught by the siren and the explosion while on the stairs to the shelter.”
Akko was not one of the northern Israeli cities to be evacuated, and the residents tell of a difficult reality living in constant fear of attacks.
Kalud Almakais, who lives about 50 yards from the impact site, told Davar that his windows were shattered by the attack. “The explosion was scary. We heard glass shatter. We didn’t manage to make it to the shared shelter,” he said. “There’s a lot of couples with young children in the neighborhood who managed to get them out of bed in the dark. That’s lucky, because a lot of window panes shattered in houses.”
Falling shrapnel caused the power to go out for half an hour, during which neighborhood residents were in the bomb shelter. “There was no air, and it was dark,” Shaili explains. She’s wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo of her father’s battalion, with which he’s currently serving in Gaza.
“It’s ludicrous that we sit and wait for the siren,” Keren, another resident, said, noting that the explosion could already be heard before the siren went off.
Only after leaving the bomb shelter did the residents witness the damage that the strike had caused.
Adi Bermi said that the ongoing war has taken a toll on her daughters as well as the family income. “The girls, who had been independent, aren’t willing to be at home alone,” she said. “They won’t come back by themselves on a school bus, and the business has been damaged.”
Not far from the most affected neighborhood lies Argaman beach, the southernmost beach in Akko. In the wake of the escalation, the lifeguard services have been shut down, but that hasn’t stopped Sayid and Louie from the nearby Arab town of Jadeidi-Makr from enjoying the beach. “We’re not afraid,” Sayid said. “Whatever God wants, we’ll accept. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Everything is from God.”
“We want peace, a return to normalcy,” Louie adds.
Until the war broke out, Sayid said, the two used to go to the northern beaches at Gesher Haziv and Rosh Hanikra, both near the Lebanon border. “This war has destroyed many things,” he said.
“There are good Arabs and bad Arabs, same with Jews and Druze and Christians,” he added. “In every religion, there’s this kind and that.”
Nisim, who owns the kiosk on the beach, has seen much less business in recent days. “There’s a regulation to stay close to the bomb shelter. There’s not a shelter here, so if there’s a siren, I go into the bathroom and curl up,” he said. “I only opened in order to provide service to the regular customers, but I’m worried that if something happens it will be on me.”
