“The shelling started at about 6.30 and continued until 10 am! Our media write about 2.5 thousand missiles fired at Israel. The “Dome” (missile defense system) worked perfectly, but not 100%. About ten rockets fell in different places in Ashkelon. These were unguided projectiles without specific targets – a carpet bombardment aimed at causing as much damage as possible. The northern part of the city was especially hard hit; there were flights to residential buildings. In my house opposite, a rocket flew straight into the balcony, people died there and a wall collapsed. Across the street, an explosion and fire occurred due to a hit in the yard – cars in the parking lot were hit. In total, I observed about six fires from high floors. Fire crews, despite the danger of colliding with terrorists, arrived very quickly and put out the fire.”
— Are the terrorists still in the city? Are the authorities taking control of the situation?
“Yes, and according to rumors and just recently I heard machine-gun fire and shooting from automatic weapons. There are no patrols or cordon. I didn’t see any security forces or terrorists on the streets, only civilians periodically passing/driving by… Of the police cars, I only saw a helicopter that patrols the city. Looks for terrorists and coordinates special forces.”
— What measures are being taken? What are the instructions for civilians?
“Stay home. Even though the addresses of shelters can be easily found on the Internet, hiding there is very dangerous. According to rumors, most of the hijacked and taken away prisoners were from air-raid shelters. Terrorists arrived at known coordinates immediately after the shelling and took civilians captive to demand ransom, make human shields, and exchange them for captured or surrounded comrades. This did not affect my friends personally, but many people disappeared from our city.”
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
