My experience as a 15 year-old in this war with Iran.

I am a 15 year old Israeli-American-South African, and I live in the north of Israel. I’d like to tell you about my personal experience in this war.

We were supposed to fly out for summer camp last week. It was going to be the first time we did it as a family, and we were all looking forward to having a respite from war.

We’re new to Israel, having made aliyah three years ago. The sirens, bombs and concrete shelters have been a big shock to all of us. Most of my family hasn’t been out of the country since October 7, and, although we love Israel, we have really been ready for and in need of a break.

We were first informed about war with Iran by a siren that sounded across the country in the middle of the night. But it was apparently just a warning to all citizens; we weren’t in any danger yet.  Since then, we’ve had so many sirens that I’ve lost count. The experience for me has sometimes been calm, sometime scary. Sometimes we joke in the safe room; sometimes the house shakes. One time when the house shook, my little sister started crying. Once we laughed when I joked about a rocket knocking on the door. But it’s never that fun; when will it end?

On the one hand I am upset about how the vacation has begun, but I am now old enough to know that there are bigger things than summer camp.  I’m relieved that we’re stopping Iran before it’s too late. 

So instead of spending the vacation in a summer camp in the U.S., we’re listening to explosions, fighter jets and sirens. Instead of being at our nearby pool, finishing the school year in person, or simply having fun, we’re mostly stuck inside.  We can only go out to the basketball court, which has a safe room nearby, to breathe a bit at the end of the day when the temperatures have cooled. 

Why didn’t the world prevent this? Didn’t you all know what Iran was trying to do? And even now that it’s happening, why isn’t anyone other than the U.S. helping us finish the job? Isn’t a nuclear Iran a threat to everyone?

I still remain hopeful that we’ll find a flight out, but our flights keep getting canceled.

I hope everything will turn out to be OK.