Sheri Oz is a freelance writer whose articles appear on major websites and a member of the Arutz Sheva news staff. She lives in Israel and blogs at Israel Diaries
A woman in southern Israel is sitting on her sofa in front of a large window.
The siren sounds. She doesn’t move. The siren goes silent. She still doesn’t move.
A boom and a flash follow.
Then the window explodes inward. Glass and aluminum frame push into her living room. Only then does she move.
Later, the moment will be described in language that has become routine in Israel: impact, interception, debris, shockwave. Words that suggest distance and containment.
But sitting on that sofa, none of that was visible. There was only the gap between when something seemed unlikely and when it became real.
Inside an apartment in Arad near the missile impact site. At this distance, the damage comes from the strike itself, not only the shockwave.
In Israel
She had not gone to the safe room.
Not because she didn’t know the instructions. Everyone knows them. She was making a judgment: about distance, about probability, about whether this particular moment belonged in the category of danger.
By now, most people in Israel have learned to move. And even then, they may not be entirely safe.
Beit Shemesh: 9 dead, 49 injured. Three incidents in and around Tel Aviv: 5 dead. Dimona and Arad: over 100 injured, 150 families forced from their homes. Some injuries came from unintercepted missiles. Others from the debris of missiles that were intercepted. Most of those hurt were not in shelters or protected rooms. The only difference between the two is the number of injured and the number of apartments turned to rubble.
Beyond Israel
The Gulf states have been targeted too - American military bases have been targeted across the region, including repeatedly in the UAE. Iran denies hitting the British base in Cyprus. It denies launching missiles toward Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It does not deny its reach.
Within Range of Europe
European leaders and media continue to frame this as a Middle East war: contained, distant, someone else’s problem. Iran frames it differently. Any country that hosts or supports American or Israeli military operations, it warns, is a potential target.
On March 20, Iran launched two missiles toward Diego Garcia, a strategic American base in the Indian Ocean, 4,000 kilometres from Tehran. That is twice the distance to Israel. One missile broke apart mid-flight. The other was intercepted.
According to IDF Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Eyal Zamir, that range puts Rome, Berlin, and Paris within reach of Tehran.
A woman stayed on her sofa in Dimona because it did not feel like her moment.
Europe is on the sofa.