Guests evacuated to a hotel shelter on the Dead Sea in southern Israel in the early hours of Sunday.
20:00 JST, April 15, 2024
EIN GEDI, Israel – Air raid sirens and explosions were heard across Israel during Iran’s drone and missile attack. A loud explosion like thunder woke me up around 1:50 am on Sunday in my room in a hotel on the Dead Sea in southern Israel. Huge bangs followed, shaking the room and the windows. It was as if a bomb had fallen somewhere.
For a moment I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Amid the cries of “Go away!” from outside and a shrill siren from the air raid siren, I rushed to the hotel shelter. During the evacuation, I looked up at the sky and saw something like fireworks: probably an interceptor missile had shot something down. In preparation for a fire caused by falling bombs, sprinklers began spraying water throughout the garden.
When I opened the steel door of the shelter, I found a room the size of a school classroom, filled with dozens of hotel guests who had fled barefoot or in their pajamas. Most were Israelis on vacation. Everyone seemed shocked as they made phone calls or searched for information on their smartphones.
Hotel staff reassured everyone and said the shelter was secure and safe. An Israeli woman with her children said she never thought Iran would actually attack Israel.
Thirty minutes after the air raid siren sounded, the area became quiet and many guests returned to their rooms. Hotel staff advised guests to get to the shelter within a minute if the siren sounded again. Some families chose to spend the night in the shelter out of fear.
