Tuesday in Gaza
11 am EET: I couldn’t help but feel panicked. I was using the computer on the 7th/ top floor business lounge when the sirens went off in our hotel. Since rockets obviously fall out of the sky, the top floor of any building is the last place you want to be during a rocket attack. I quickly walked out the door and had no idea where the bomb shelter was. In front of me is a window running the length of the hall that overlooks the inviting deep blue sea. Strike two for me, windows are the worst thing to hide behind in an attack. I cower behind one of the cleaning carts housekeeping uses and a steel elevator door.
I can’t hear the children in the daycare located in the hotel. They’ve gone silent for the first time this morning. Rocket impacts a couple miles away hitting a home. No fatalities or injuries. Family wisely heeded the sirens warning and fled to their bomb shelter.
11:30 am: At the front desk I notice this sign:
Dear Guest,
For your comfort there are shelters on floors 1, 4, 5, 6.
Regards,
Hotel Management
No internet in hotel rooms, but bomb shelters on 4 floors.
1 pm: Producer Ian Rafferty and I go to fill up gas and pick up water and sunflower seeds for the crew. The alarm goes off again. The woman behind the counter pulls my arm and drags me to a closet that’s clearly used for storing. Packages of soda, chips, and bottled water surrounded us. There is so much you can tell about a person’s ego based on how they enter a bomb shelter here.
A man with his son entered the “safe room” lacksadaisically – making a show of himself about how he wasn’t scared and how silly everyone else was who ran into the shelter. Much to the irritation of my producer Ian and the people stuck behind him trying to get in.
15 minutes later Ian was still fuming saying, “Look if you think your too cool to enter a bomb shelter don’t jeopardize the other people who are scrambling to get in!”
There are a lot of people who think they’re too cool for a bomb shelter. My general rule: If the local people are running to bomb shelters don’t pretend you’re too cool for them.”
236 pm: We go to pick up lunch for the crew at the border before our shift begins. The alarm system in the city goes off. We’re near a gas station. Cameraman Dudi pulls next to the gas station. I’m not sure this is so smart. He says the roof is armored. Ian and I disagree. Dudi grabs his camera as we wait for the rocket to fall. It hits close by. We get in the car and drive down the street to the town of Sderot.
244 pm: We ask 3 different policemen where the rocket hit. No one seems to know. We don’t see any smoke. Probably landed in a field somewhere. If it had hit a home the authorities would know by now.
330 pm: Human rights groups say the White Phosphorous used in artillery shells by the Israeli military to create smoke screens has left burns on Palestinians in Gaza. We shoot a stand up near a military area by an orange tree grove. I pluck 10 oranges. I’m a Florida girl. I haven’t seen fresh fruit in weeks.
5 pm: When we arrive back a the work site overlooking Gaza, Ian puts the oranges in a overturned Kevlar helmet and serves them to the crew. They chuckle and nod approvingly. It’s been a quiet day on the hill so far and everyone in the FOX camp seems to be in a good mood. This is typical. FOX personnel typically enjoy each others company – not always – but usually.
6 pm: Back in Jerusalem my other producer Ibrahim is working hard with editor Ronin to put together our package for Special Report about White Phosphorous burning Gaza civilians.
Reena Ninan is a correspondent for FNC, spending the majority of her
time in the Middle East. She provided on-site updates of Iraq's first
parliamentary elections and coverage of Saddam Hussein's trial from
Baghdad. 
What’s worse… white phosphorus from smoke screens, or Qassam rockets randomly targeted into civilian Jewish settlements?
Stay safe Reena. Tough duty over there, and much appreciated by those of us safe at home.
Always be alert Reena, and keep an ear out for that siren. It would be nice to get some upclose footage of the conflict, maybe you can make an incursion into Gaza for a quick report. The man in the bomb shelter was used to the terror, so he just does’nt panic anymore, a sad reminder of life in that region. Keep your eyes open!
A citizen of Israel had an interview with a sweet young Israeli woman whose home had been hit by a Qassam rocket a year ago.
The rocket went right through the roof into her house. Most of her family didn’t make it to a shelter in time, as they only had 15 seconds to take cover. Her story brought chills to my spine. She mentioned that it was a nightmare you never want to go through. In fact, part of her experience is already blacked out of her memory. She cannot remember everything, but when she gained consciousness after the attack, she saw that the house was destroyed.
Most of her family had suffered minor burns, which was a miracle in itself. The parents were already physically handicapped. All of her brothers and sisters were displaced and sheltered in an army facility for eight months until some of the house had been restored. The outside still has a long way to go.
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An Israeli citizen met with a sweet young Israeli woman whose home had been hit by a Qassam rocket a year ago.
I’ll never forget her comment that living with the threat of incoming rockets is like a game of Russian roulette – you either live or die. Imagine … more than 10,000 rockets and mortars have been launched into southern Israel in the past eight years. Just think – the tragic story of the woman above happened last year … and there are many, many more accounts just like hers, with families and individuals suffering incredible loss!
The stress of life, the collateral damage, the emotional strain, the sight of the wounded and those who die, the loss of homes and loved ones – it is all more than one can even imagine!
In the current war in Gaza, at least seven Israeli schools have been hit and damaged by Hamas rockets. Children are bedwetting and afraid to return to schools.
The Israelis have lived with 9/11’s every day of their lives for years!
It is high time that the UN and other nations helped put a stop to the terror on the Israeli citizens instead of “beating them up” for defending themselves.
The Israelis have taken in anti-Israel victims to their hospitals and saved their lives only to be turned on by those “victims”.
Have you noticed that hamas only releases pictures of men and women and children crying and being “victimized”.
Hamas is portraying the men of the area as ball babies. Why don’t those men turn around and stand up for themselves and kick hamas out? Then the killing would stop.
The news media should be responsible and not pick up any pictures coming out from hamas as they are propaganda.
Why doesn’t the news media show the disaster and lives of the Israelis when innocent citizens including children in schools are bombed and homes destroyed over the many years?