The Iranian ballistic missile attack late Saturday night left most Israeli parents sleepless with worry, especially those without a bomb shelter in their home. For Yaara Cohen, 39, a mother of two young children, the expected attack and the subsequent escape to safety required some pre-planning. 

“We don’t have a bomb shelter or safety room in our apartment. Our building is quite old and we live on the second floor,” Ms. Cohen told the New York Sun. Ms. Cohen, who lives in a small community in the Negev Highlands, said she put her two children to sleep with their socks and shoes on, so that they would be ready to reach the shelter in time.

“At around 2:00 AM in the morning, I woke up to the rocket siren. My husband and I got the kids out of bed and rushed to the community shelter about a block away.” 

“Right before we reached the shelter, we could see an interception of an Iranian missile in the sky. It was just surreal.” 

She described the pandemonium as at least 70 other people crowded into the bomb shelter, with crying kids and even barking dogs. “We also brought our dog, Rona, along with us too. There was enough room for everyone in the bomb shelter including family pets,” said Ms. Cohen. 

“All the people were in their pajamas. Another family had placed mattresses in the bomb shelter beforehand. We all came prepared to varying degrees.”

She said that she couldn’t sleep all night, even after the Iranian attack was over. “It was hard to get the kids back to sleep. And I kept checking the news on my phone,” she said. 

“It’s just very unsettling,” said Nofar, a mother of three from Kibbutz Sde Boker who also doesn’t have a bomb shelter in her home. “I think very few moms actually slept for the past 24 hours. We have never experienced such an attack from Iran before. We had no idea what would happen to us.” 

Iran attacked Israel from a distance of 1,100 miles, firing over 300 drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles in its first direct attack on the Jewish state, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

While little damage was done thanks to the fact that 99 percent of the Iranian projectiles were intercepted by Israel, United States, UK, France and Jordan, a young Bedouin girl was seriously injured by shrapnel from an intercepted ballistic missile. She is being treated for life-threatening wounds in Beer Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center. Eight other people were hurt in the same incident with minor injuries, which took place in a Bedouin town near Arad in the southern part of the Negev desert.

Other Israelis, like Shira Bubis, 38, of Jerusalem, a mom of two young children with one on the way, told the New York Sun that while she was exhausted, she was very “grateful” for a bomb shelter in her family’s apartment.  “Our bomb shelter also serves as the kids room. My oldest daughter, Debbie, woke up from the siren and booms, but she handled it like a trooper. Our son Asher slept through it all.” 

She also noted that she was extremely thankful for Israel’s defense forces, the pilots and developers of the defense systems who shot down the missiles as well as Israel’s allies. “They all kept us safe last night,” Ms. Bubis commented.

Israelis, however, are still remaining vigilant on Sunday night and throughout Monday, as schools and daycare institutions remain closed. 

“The campaign is not over yet – we must remain alert and attentive to the instructions published by the IDF and Homefront Command. We must be prepared for every scenario,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a statement on Sunday. “Having said this, we have thwarted the most significant wave [of the attack], and we did so successfully.”