Location: Jerusalem, Israel
| Lat/Lng: |
31.78083, 35.19299 |
It is 2009 and the war here has sadly intensified, with Hamas rockets reaching further into Israel and more aggressive Israeli air strikes as a result. We stayed with Meidad and his family for two days. Arad is only about 18 miles from Be’ersheva, a major city that has been hit by missiles from Hamas.
We were told by Meidad’s mom to not cycle our original route toward Dimona due to the fact that there has been increased violence along this road due to the war, with rocks being thrown at cars and further north the same group has thrown Molotov cocktails at passing vehicles as well. In light of this advice, we took a different road around this area.
With an early start, we followed a great road as it snaked along the high desert plateau. Just before a chemical and nuclear plant, we got a call from Yoav asking us if we could come for Shabbat in Jerusalem. With things getting worse rather than better with the fighting it would be nice to be with friends, but mostly it was certainly going to be the last time we saw Ruti, so we were excited and happy to go. The only unnerving part to taking the bus was that it stopped in Be’ersheva, the city that was bombed 10 hours ago. Upon reaching the Ber sheva station, the streets were mostly quiet, but still a large section of life continued, with people boarding busses, shopping and carrying on with daily life, something we are told many people in areas of conflict “have to do”.
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