Over 650 rockets having been shot at Israel since Wednesday – this number has been rising quickly so this is likely to be higher by the time you read this.  Residents in the Jerusalem area had an air missile warning sounded on Friday night (my ds19 called me tonight to tell me about this since he’s there), and this took many people by surprise since the center of the country wasn’t considered in target range.  Now that things are spreading from the south to the center of the country (this includes Tel Aviv and the suburbs), a lot more people need to know how to prepare for the current bombings so I thought it would be helpful to share some information on resources to learn about what’s going on, as well as how to react in the event that you hear a missile warning.

Firstly, for English speaking radio and television broadcasts, visit http://www.iba.org.il/world.  This is good for people like me who have been too busy to pay much attention to the news, so you can get a quick sense of what’s going on.

Here’s a very short video showing you what to do to protect yourself during missile attacks:

Here are detailed written  instructions on what to do in case of rocket fire; this is more informational than the short video clip above.  There are different instructions for those who have Mamads/Residential secured space, and those (like me) who live in a home that was built before this feature became standard.   Depending in what part of the country you live, you have up to one minute at the very most to get to a secure shelter, so you must know what to do before you hear the siren.  Practice this before you need it so you will know what to do – in a moment of crisis is a lousy time to try to figure out what to do.

There are detailed instructions for a variety of situations as well as different aspects of emergency preparation on the Home Front Command website.  This site is in Hebrew; here is the English site.

Here is information about preparing a family plan.  I think this is really valuable information because as parents, we want to do what we can to minimize trauma and help kids be prepared in as positive a way as possible for a difficult situation.

Below are radio stations to tune in to hear what’s happening:

• AM band ofn 954 kHz in the center and south, 1575 in the north
• FM band – Jerusalem – 101.3 and 88.2; Tel Aviv – 101.2; Beer Sheva – 107.3; Haifa – 93.7; Upper Galilee – 94.4
• English news can be heard on 88.2 FM in Jerusalem and some parts of central Israel.

The following organizations provide emotional support for those in need. Both have websites in English that can be helpful for you to know about with contact info and emergency numbers.

a) NATAL has been working to provide emotional support to those suffering from trauma and anxiety, their toll free 24/7 hotline is 1-800-363-363; http://www.natal.org.il/english/·

b)Israel Center for Psycho Trauma http://www.traumaweb.org/

Please say a prayer or a chapter of Psalms (20, 83, 121, 130, and 142 are particularly appropriate in this situation) for the protection of our people, including those defending our country at this difficult time.

Let’s hope that the need for this information will be very short-lived!

Avivah