Vietnamese people under fire in Israel

Oct 10, 2023

National
Vietnamese people under fire in Israel

Jerusalem [Israel], October 10: Although still safe, the tense war situation, constantly having to go to shelters and safe rooms, makes many Vietnamese living in Israel worried.
That is the sharing of some Vietnamese people living, working and studying in Israel when answering ThanhNien about life in the past few days, since Hamas forces suddenly attacked Israel.
Life and death races in 90 seconds
90 seconds is the amount of time that every time she hears the siren, Ms. Kim and her children have to run through several floors and then go to the shelter.
Married and living in Tel Aviv , the apartment building Ms. Kim currently lives in has 7 buildings, but only 2 recently built buildings meet the standards of having safe rooms in each apartment. Therefore, every time the siren sounds, or the phone app notifies that a rocket is launching, Ms. Kim and her family have to run down to the yard and then to the common shelter.
"During the day, it takes 57 seconds to run while awake. At night, while sleeping, 90 seconds is not enough time," Ms. Kim said when answering ThanhNien last night (October 9 ) . She sent a video recording of herself and her family running when the alarm sounded, but some elderly people living in neighboring apartments were resigned because they couldn't keep up.
According to instructions from authorities, people in Tel Aviv have 90 seconds to take shelter in a safe place. Because of her anxious mood, she often turned on the TV to keep up with the news or hear the alarm, even though the sirens outside were always very loud.
"Rockets kept falling," Ms. Kim said and then illustrated by sending videos she had just recorded of the scene outside with explosions echoing somewhere.
She said she has lived in Israel for 14 years, working as a tour guide. Every year, authorities conduct training for people on how to take refuge from the threat of rocket attacks. "And usually every two years, we experience a conflict so we keep running. This time, the difference is the scale of the war is brutal and targets civilians," Ms. Kim worried. The worry became even greater when there was recent news that Thai workers were also murdered.
Regarding daily activities, she said that Tel Aviv is still in the orange warning zone so she can still go out to buy food. And according to her, thanks to being in the orange zone, "I only had 90 seconds to take shelter." Meanwhile, some of you in the red zone near the Gaza Strip are much more dangerous.
Anxiety in the red zone
Not leaving home, in addition to the threat of rocket fire, also the fear of Hamas gunmen makes people in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip afraid. That is the sharing of T., an intern who just came to Israel from Vietnam about a month ago to participate in a training course at an agricultural technology center. T. lives in Sderot City, located right next to the Gaza Strip.
"Our place is affected by rockets and direct attacks by Hamas gunmen. Currently all the people here are in bomb shelters in their homes and do not go out. Rockets are fired continuously. ", T. said when interviewed by ThanhNien yesterday. Currently, she and three friends, all Vietnamese, are living in an apartment complex, a dormitory-style building at the training center. About 800 meters from where she lives, there are nearly 20 other interns, all Vietnamese.
"We still have enough food and the center is bringing us more food," T. said, adding: "Today (October 9), the attacks are heavier and more numerous than yesterday. via (8.10)". The apartment has a safe room available, T. and his roommates still live normally, just stay away from windows and closely follow the app on their phones to receive notifications of rocket attacks. Every time that happened, T. and his friends would quickly run into the safe room.
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper