A video of terrified Israeli children, whimpering and trembling in an Ashkelon bomb shelter in the wake of a rocket siren, has gone viral, illustrating the frustration and helplessness felt by many residents in southern Israel and the untolled toll the precarious security situation in taking on Israeli children's lives.
The video was taken on Tuesday night by Ashkelon resident Reut Shpilman, soon after a rocket siren went off in the coastal city just before midnight.
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Speaking with Israeli media, she said this heart-wrenching sight of her terrified children happens every time the sirens go off.
"It's very frustrating, the gap between understanding what's happening here in the south and the way life just goes on outside the siren areas," Shpilman, a mother of four, told Channel 12 News on Wednesday. "We have 30 seconds [after a siren sounds], to get four kids to the bomb shelter, which is outside the house. We can't go on like this."
Since she posted the video on Facebook, it has been viewed over 85,000 times and shared over 3,300 times.
הי אתם שם למעלה, אתם שומעים?? כאן בדרום חיים במציאות בלתי אפשרית! באיזה מדינה בעולם נותנים שירו על האזרחים שלהם???? באיזה??ביבי, עם כל ההישגים שלך, אם ישנם אזרחים שחיים תחת פחד יומיומי! לא עשית כלום!! עדיף שתלך הביתה!! מעל 10 שנים אתה בשלטון! חאלס! אין את מי להאשים!
פורסם על ידי רעות שפילמן דרייר ב- יום שלישי, 26 בנובמבר 2019
The clip shows Shpilman's 8-year-old daughter, Ori, visibly trembling and weeping as she tells her mother, "I don't want to [go back into the house]. I want to stay here ... until there won't be any more wars, enough," she says, lips quivering.
Six-year-old Yonatan, hands clasped in front of him, frowns and visibly shakes as he moves to stand next to his mother, as Noam, 3, clings to his mother's leg.
Shpilman suggests, "Let's go inside the house."
But Ori refuses. "Mom, I don't like it in the house. I want to stay here."
"How long can we stay here?" Shpilman asks.
"I'm scared, I want to stay here," Ori insists, continuing to tremble. "I want to stay here."