About half of the population of Kibbutz Nir Am is in its golden years, many senior citizens, with less than 50 youths under the age of 18 still living in the community.

Two of the teens representing the minority population are Eden (14) and Einav (16), who found themselves alone in a bomb shelter when the IDF operation was launched on Shabbos, refusing to leave the community for safety has so many residents chose to do.

Yossi Meislisch explains no one is officially seeking to remove residents from the kibbutz, but families with relatives in the center and north, or who have been invited to take part in candle lighting elsewhere, have opted to do so, to leave their homes temporarily for safer venues.

The girls explained their parents traveled to Rechovot for a birthday party of a friend of their younger sister, with Eden explaining she was uninterested in the party and Einav opting to remain and study for a Tanach exam.

When the bombing began close to noon on Shabbos, the two locked the doors of their home and they entered the bomb shelter which can hold ten. They were alone. They plugged in their cellular telephone chargers and sat down, listening to the explosions as they looked at their dad’s wine collection. He uses the bomb shelter as a wine cellar.

Eden is cold and wraps herself in a blanket and the two open a plastic container of homemade cookies that they brought along. They turn on the television and begin watching the reports, counting the seconds between Color Red alerts and the explosions, only 15 seconds. Eden has her laptop, but there is no Internet so there is little to do to occupy time, to take her mind off the explosions that are so frighteningly near.

Eden explains that there was a Color Red on Friday night and while she did not recite Shema when she went to bed, she did fall asleep holding a tehillim. I heard the siren and did not have the energy to get up, but finally pulled myself out of bed.

Einav’s view is different, insisting “you never get used to it, the sirens and explosions that is.”

“I also get under the blanket, but whisper ‘please watch over me, watch over me,’ and I fall asleep. I keep two pieces of Kassam fragments that I found on kibbutz in my jewelry box. I feel much safer in the bomb shelter. The problem is that the bathroom does not work so if I need a toilet, I must run home.”

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)