A Southern Israeli City Takes Care of Its Elderly Amid a Barrage of Missiles

An elderly lady clutches her large bag, which contains her pillow and blanket and walks carefully to a newly opened overnight bomb shelter. She hasn’t been able to sleep for several nights in her Beer Sheva apartment, as Iranian ballistic missiles, rocket sirens and loneliness overwhelm her, as well as other senior citizens living in Israel’s largest southern city in the Negev desert. Meirav Shaked-Peretz welcomes the elderly lady and many more like her into an overnight bomb shelter specifically servicing the senior citizens of Beer Sheva who have difficulty reaching shelter in time from incoming missiles or who do not have any access to a safe room in their apartment buildings. The elderly lady gratefully accepted the cup of tea given to her and sat down quietly, with a sad expression, initially refusing to speak to anyone.“The senior citizens are a vulnerable sector of our population in Beer Sheva, especially those who live alone with no immediate family who can provide them support. During war, the nights are especially challenging,” Ms. Shaked-Peretz tells The New York Sun.Ms. Shaked-Peretz, who serves as the head of the senior citizens’ committee and is a member of the Beer Sheva municipality, said that many of the city’s elderly have been experiencing much greater anxiety and feelings of loneliness since the Iran War began nearly three weeks ago. As the night wore on, other senior citizens began arriving at the shelter and the elderly lady began to open up and converse with them. In the early hours of the morning, she woke up. “I haven’t slept like this for a long time,” she told one of the bombshelter staff. “It’s so good to feel safe again and to know that someone is watching over me.”According to Ms. Shaked-Peretz, the Beer Sheva Municipality and Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, together with the Ministry of Welfare, and nursing support organization Matav, established a bomb shelter that provides not only a nightly shelter with beds, heating, books, board games and a coffee stand but also gives the senior citizens a place to feel more at home and less alone. The shelter is open for 12 hours from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am and is free of charge.Already during the opening of the first night, 10 senior citizens arrived and were able to get a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while as staff were on hand to help and welcome them. Depending on the number of rocket sirens heard throughout the day, the number of senior citizens seeking overnight shelter fluctuates. “It’s important to understand that the reality in Israel and in Beer Sheva is complicated right now — there’s the everyday routine of people working, volunteering, raising families alongside of having to be constantly vigilant and alert,” Ms. Shaked-Peretz told the Sun.During the early days of the war, an Iranian ballistic missile directly hit an apartment building in Beer Sheva on March 2, wounding 19 Israelis, and forcing 1,083 people to evacuate their apartments, including 577 families. Schools and daycare facilities across the city have remained closed throughout the war.Last June, an Iranian ballistic missile directly hit the Beer Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center, whose staff had just hours before the attack transferred the patients being treated in the building to a more secure area.And early Wednesday morning, March 18, an elderly couple in their 70s, Yaron and Ilana Moshe, in central Israel were killed when an Iranian cluster missile hit their home. They attempted to make it in time to the safe room of their apartment but couldn’t reach the shelter, according to the Tel Aviv District police commander, Haim Sargaroff. The rocket left a gaping hole in their ceiling and destroyed their balcony, leaving rubble everywhere. The elderly couple were found with a walker next to them, meters away from their safe room.For Ms. Shaked-Peretz, the overnight bomb shelter is a crucial service for Beer Sheva’s elderly. “The overnight bomb shelter is a human enterprise that grew out of the understanding of the real needs of the senior citizens of Beer Sheva — this shelter doesn’t only provide physical security from the missiles but also a sense of belonging and dignity for those who are the heart of our community,” says Ms. Shaked-Peretz“This is the least we can do for our senior citizens during days of countless missiles and sirens. They need us,” she concluded.

A Southern Israeli City Takes Care of Its Elderly Amid a Barrage of Missiles

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