Israel Matzav

Air raid sirens in Jerusalem

Shortly before 1:00 - about 40 minutes ago - while we were in the middle of praying the afternoon service, an air raid siren went off here in Jerusalem.

In our neighborhood, we are used to the siren. It goes off every Friday afternoon 40 minutes before sundown to signal the onset of the Sabbath, and of course, it goes off every year on Holocaust Memorial Day and Memorial Day in the Spring. But this time, it was a rising and falling, wailing sound. Since no one really expected anything to happen, we continued with our prayers.

As it turns out, it was a false alarm caused by a malfunction.

These are tense times here in Israel....

UPDATE 1:48 PM

The sirens also went off in Beit Shemesh (which, according to my son who lives there, may actually be in range if the range is 60 km and not 40km) and Maaleh Adumim.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:33 PM