23 year old Yifat Schwartz studies media sciences at Sapir College in southern Israel. She fled from rocket attacks from the Gazastrip to Jerusalem. But the rockets followed her. On Friday a rocket landed in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

We were in a lecture when the leader of the military wing of Hamas was killed in the Gaza Strip. All phones were going off, some girls rushed off immediately and said to the teacher: "Excuse me, but we live far away, we have to go before it starts." Some of us stayed and studied more. After a while we heard three bombs crash and screams from outside and everyone panicked. I went outside and saw students weeping. "This is war!" someone shouted, "we have killed a really important leader, they will fight back," I started to tremble. After five minutes, the college was empty. I stood 20 minutes in traffic with my car.

I drove to my kibbutz. On the road between Kibbutz and college four rockets had fallen within the week before the escalation. One and a half months I have been studying at Sapir College in southern Israel, and there was not a moment where I was not afraid. I grabbed my stuff from the kibbutz and went up to Jerusalem to see my parents. They live in Mevasseret outside the city. Since then we are at home. I spoke with my mother, we both agreed that Jerusalem is the safest place in Israel because the Arabs will never send rockets to one of their holiest places. I called my friends in the South and invited them to come to us till the end of the operation.

Then, on Friday afternoon, we suddenly saw on television news that Jerusalem had "Zeva adom" - "the color red" means full alert. We opened the window and listened to the sirens wail. We ran into our shelter. We have never used it, it is next to our kitchen, we keep our toilet paper and bottles there. All of us except my father went in. He just could not believe that Hamas shoots at Jerusalem. Perhaps Hamas wanted to simply tell us is that they can reach us even here.

I'd only been once before in a bomb-proof room, which was in 1991, when Saddam Hussein fired at Israel. I was a baby then. I think Hamas hates Israel, they hate the Jews, they are not human. Besides the fact that they want the territory of Israel, they hate us so much that nothing else matters. For our part, it is quite different. We are reasonable people, we do not want war. If Hamas stops firing, then we will of course also stop. We want peace.

Israel supplies the Gaza Strip with electricity. Why do we do that? If we turn off the power, then we'll see how they handle it. Israel's army is an army of human beings and I know this because my friends are the soldiers. All friends of my friends have been called in, they are no longer with us, they have been driven away, we do not know where they are. We are afraid for them.

They started with firing rockets at us, and we must respond. Already in 1947 we wanted a two-state solution and the Arabs have not agreed. And now it is again the same. That’s why we have war. They want us to disappear. But that will not happen. I want my life back, my life is on pause. I think, not even my grandchildren will live in a peaceful world. It will never be over.

Written down by Tessa Szyszkowitz