Ashkelon – a city of rockets

The rocket that hit their Ashkelon home on Tuesday and the flying glass that followed left Michelle Cohen and her 98-year-old mother, Nina, unscathed.

“God loves us, it was a miracle,” said Cohen hours later, as she stood in front of her apartment building close to the Mediterranean Sea.

Her neighbor in a nearby apartment in the same building was less lucky and died of wounds sustained in the attack. So although her apartment was temporarily uninhabitable and she did not know where she, her mother, or her dog would sleep, the 63-year-old Cohen was of a mindset to count her blessings.

Running for shelter was not an option when the siren rang out hours earlier, because her mother depends on a walker and moves very slowly.

“I can’t take her to the shelter every time,” Cohen explained, adding, “I don’t want to just run and leave her.”

She had hoped that nothing would happen. Instead, “all the windows in the entire apartment exploded. All the glass came down. There were pieces of glass all over the living room and on our beds. We were in the living room on the sofa. We were just so shocked, we couldn’t believe what we saw.”

Cohen remained calm as they packed a small bag and left. Now she stood on the sidewalk outside, with glass shards scattered around her. Behind her stretched red police tape across a number of metal grates. Above, one could see the broken windows and the black burned tiles where her apartment was located. Further down the