With grandfather and grandmother at the shelter until the rockets stop

A pink Minnie Mouse backpack, plastic bags with clothes, a toddler with a pacifier. Ehud Khalfoun (32) leaves his apartment in Ashkelon, hands full. Last night, they sleep with their parents in a neighborhood they have at least one shelter there.

Families spent a sleepless night on both sides of the border with the Gaza Strip. After the army, six other Palestinians and an Israeli officer were killed in an Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. According to the Israeli army, about 460 missiles were fired Monday and Tuesday at Israeli communities in the south of the country. dead and several wounded. Israel has carried out 160 bomb attacks on Gaza, killing seven people. It is certain that four large buildings were razed to the ground. A fragile ceasefire was reached Tuesday night.

The first civilian death on the Israeli side fell around Khalfoun. A rocket from Gaza landed on a five-storey building. According to local media, a resident of Hebron, a Palestinian worker, did not survive. Two women were seriously injured.

Read also: Assassination of Gaza bombing by Israel after rocket fire

Safe in the bathroom

Ambulance driver Moti Shuv (30 years old) shows a pink mattress on the fourth floor of the building in ruins. "We were already in the hospital with other wounded, when we were called back.The woman was still moving, but not the man." A resident of the locality had noticed the dead and the wounded who had apparently neglected the emergency services.

"I rushed to the bathroom with my seven-year-old daughter, it's the safest place," says Batel Buhbut, a neighbor (32). The bomb shelter on the street was closed and too far away. In this neighborhood, not all buildings have a space at the bomb shelter, as in Sderot, for example, which is closer to the Gaza Strip and more often hit. A friend shows Buhbut a message on her phone: a rocket attack in another part of Ashkelon. "If there is another aerial alarm now, I do not even know where to go," said ambulance employee Shuv.

Balloons and Kites

The Egyptian government and the United Nations have been trying for months to negotiate a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but continues to control the land and sea borders. In exchange for easing the blockade, in place since Hamas came to power in 2007, and putting in place infrastructure projects, Hamas should put an end to violent expressions. Among them, Israel counts rocket attacks, but also the balloons and kites in combustible materials that have been regularly launched from the Gaza Strip since early June and destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest and land. of agricultural land.

Last Friday, a case seemed close when Israel made a first payment of $ 15 million to Gaza, to pay the salaries of Hamas officials. It was part of a planned assistance program of Qatar.

Leave Space

Both in Gaza, where many bombings occurred in downtown, as well as in southern Israel, parents had the most great trouble to explain to their children that it was not yet a war. Between the explosions, it was clear that Israel and Hamas left room for negotiation. Hamas, for example, has not deployed long-range missiles. In addition, Israel has mainly affected empty buildings.

Despite bellicose statements by some ministers, the Israeli government is reluctant to send ground troops to Gaza. Hamas also seems to be hoping that, without total war, the suffocating blockade could be lifted. Benjamin Netanyahu said this weekend in Paris that he did not want "useless war". It was before the Sunday night operation, which we still do not know whether it was a targeted killing, as Hamas explains, or d & rsquo; An attempt to collect information, as the Israeli army says.

The talks were bruised by blazing violence, but have not yet been killed. While Hamas and other Palestinian groups, after the mediation of Egypt and other parties, announced Tuesday that a ceasefire had been concluded "that we will respect if Israel does, "Israel" reserves the right to continue operations ". Earlier in the day, Israel sent reinforcements of troops to the border.

With regard to the inhabitants of southern cities, Israel can not intervene sufficiently. "We do not want peace for four years, but forever," said Khalfoun. "Hamas must see that we are not freierim (wimps)." Even though he seemed to stay calm for Tuesday night, the kids spend the night with their grandfather and grandmother.