• In 2011, Joshua Schewitz left South Africa to escape crime and find a safe place to raise a family.
• His children, aged between 2 and 9, sleep in a bomb shelter, 30km from Gaza.
• The current Hamas attack is different from what they have grown used to, he says – but he is never leaving Israel.
• This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Joshua Schewitz. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I live in Yavne, 30km north of Gaza in the southern district of Israel, fairly close to the fighting.

We have rocket attacks all the time. I just went to get provisions in the last few hours, and on the way had to take shelter. 

I emigrated from South Africa in 2011. I met my wife, who is an Israeli, at the University of Johannesburg, and followed her here. All three of my girls were born here. At 20 years old some horrible things happened to me in South Africa, and I didn't want to have a family in that situation.

When I moved to Israel one of the first things they gave me was a gas mask. But for the most part, having a family in Israel is very nice. I live on the 20th floor of an apartment building. My 9-year-old girl can walk to the playground down the road at night, without anyone accompanying her. Our town is not quite as big as Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, but it would be the same there. We have no issues with regards to crime. Our front door is generally open, we don't ever lock the car door.

Locked doors 

Now we've locked the door.

It started in the morning, from 6:30 to 10:00 it was constant. We sat in the shelter for three hours because we couldn't leave, it was just alarms and bombs, bombs and bombs and bombs, it was indescribable.

We got some sleep in the evening.  

My wife grew up here and served in the army. Her father served in the army. It is just a normal thing, something you have to accept.

It is not about feeling safer or not feeling safer than in South Africa. I am a Jew, my kids are Jews, this is the Jewish homeland, we're not going anywhere. It may be difficult at times. I think the next few weeks and months are going to be very difficult, but this is my homeland. My ancestry may mean I landed in South Africa, but that was only temporary. South Africa may be a place where Jews stay, but Israel is our homeland, and we will defend it with everything we can.

I pray for peace, as we have with Jordan and Egypt. Please God let us have peace with Lebanon and Syria. 

Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, they are extremists that do not have a goal of creating a country, their goal has always been to destroy Israel. But there are Palestinians who want to create a country, those are the people we will talk to. We are never going to have peace with the militants, but we will have peace.

I have to have that hope, because my kids are 9, 6, and 2. In 10 years from now, or 14 years or 18 years, they're going to be in the army, so please God let there be peace.

House bound 

In South Africa I saw how things can radically change. There are significant differences between what happened in South Africa and what's happening here. It is very difficult to draw a comparison. Yet, I've had the experience of change as a South African, I have seen the possibility, and that has influenced how I do things. I am very much on the left wing of the Israeli political spectrum - I work for, I hope for, and I vote for peace. 

One of my friends has been called up, my wife's sisters have been called up, they're in their 20s. My wife won't be called up due to personal circumstances, I might be. I can't control that. I can only focus on keeping my family safe.

It's similar to Covid, our kids have meetings on Zoom, they're on the computer with their friends. I've been out to get provisions and to get food, everybody else stays in the house. 

Normally, I look from the balcony and I see traffic, people walking in the streets. Today, yesterday, nothing.

My father came from South Africa to visit the kids, he left Sunday morning. I took him to the airport. It's only about 40km from us, but we must have gone through six or seven different checkpoints.

I was meant to travel to South Africa for my sister's engagement party this week. I cancelled. I can't leave my family in this situation. 

In general, we keep food that won't go off and water in the bomb shelter. The city and home-front command issued instructions and we followed those, so we have provisions for at least a few days.

The waiting is just a lot of anxiety. A lot. Between every alarm and explosion, it's a lot of anxiety. Besides the alarms, the fear that terrorists can come to our door and break open the door and try and take us hostage, it's stressful. My girls have been instructed not to open the door, even if looks like the person at the door is a policeman or a soldier.

It is just constant anxiety, and fear.

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