Sébastien le Belzic (special correspondent in Ashkelon) / Photo credits: FADEL SENNA / AFP
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4:02 p.m., November 1, 2023
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas rages, Israeli residents in towns bordering the Gaza Strip live in fear. In Ashkelon, some refused to leave despite the risks. They live under the threat of rockets every day. Europe 1 went to meet them.
On the 26th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the fighting rages. In Ashkelon, a border town with the Gaza Strip, 150,000 residents have already been the target of 2,000 rockets since October 7. Although two thirds of the population have left, some refuse to abandon their homes despite the risks.
Daily alerts
When sirens sound in Ashkelon, residents have 15 seconds to take shelter. Claude Zemmour lives on the eighth floor of an old building. Its windows face directly onto the Gaza Strip.
“Last night, I was at home. PAF, an alert! At one point, we ask ourselves the question: ‘but what am I doing? Where is my helmet? Where do I put myself? What happens if a bomb goes off? And I’m in socks, that annoys me! At night, I sleep in shoes,” he explains on Europe 1.
An almost deserted city
“It’s all bomb day, it’s all siren day,” explains Rachel Ayoun. She lives in a building very close to the border. “Last week, it fell here. My children are on the first floor and it fell just on the second floor. The windows fell in my garden, but we didn’t got nothing,” she explains.
Rachel lives cloistered in her apartment. Claude continues to go out to lend a hand to police patrols: “I carry a weapon, I have a helmet and I made a homemade bulletproof vest”. Most residents preferred to flee far from Ashkelon. The city is now almost deserted.