'We Were Not Ready': Trying To Run A Restaurant With Rockets Exploding Close By

"The Hell is here in Israel, but it’s coming to all over the world."

ASHKELON, Israel — Lilach has been running a local restaurant with her husband for a year and a half. While Lilach has seen her fair share of events relating to Israel’s conflict with Hamas since the coastal city of Ashkelon is roughly 8 miles from the Gaza Strip, the terrorist attacks on October 7 shook her to her core.

“I felt what everybody in Israel felt: fear…I don’t have the words for it,” she explained to me as tears welled up.

Unlike the nearby smaller town of Sderot, civilians in Ashkelon have not officially received orders to evacuate, but considering hundreds of rockets have landed inside the city, many people have left. While not a ghost town like Sderot, Ashkelon has effectively shut down.