Ohio University graduate describes life in Tel Aviv during war

COLUMBUS, Ohio ( WCMH ) — It is almost the one year anniversary of Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and a war broke out in the Middle East.

It’s been a year of turmoil and on Monday, Iran launched an attack against Israel.

Watch: Life in Tel Aviv during conflict

Shaye Manton is an Ohio University graduate who has been living in Tel Aviv for about 14 months, where she is teaching English to 4th graders. NBC4 first talked to Manton a year ago and since then, she said the sound of sirens has been a constant in her life.

“It’s really hard to think that it’s been a year,” said Manton. “I think a lot of people here are really struggling with the fact that it’s been a year.”

Manton said she loves living in Israel and even became an Israeli citizen recently, but she said it’s been hard to get used to rockets flying over her head. On Monday, Manton was at a Tel Aviv mall when the sirens went off, signaling Iran’s attack on the country.

“We ran to the nearest bomb shelter,” Manton said. “There were like 30 strangers running in with us. We closed the bomb shelter door and you could hear massive booms, like we honestly haven’t had those that loud in Tel Aviv since the war began.”

As she made her way home, sirens blared again and she had to pull the car over underneath a bridge for shelter.

“We had a whole visual. I could see about 30 rockets in the sky coming towards Tel Aviv, coming towards the area we were in and we couldn’t go anywhere,” said Manton. “We just had to sit under a bridge and hope that they all got intercepted.”

Manton said there are siren drills almost every day at the school where she teaches.

“It’s not like it is in America where it’s like we walk out neat and orderly during a fire drill,” Manton said. “It’s like we are yelling at these kids ‘run, run, run’ and they are sprinting to these bomb shelters.”

The first few months after Oct. 7, 2023 were difficult for Manton. She said she got used to hearing sirens and ducking into bomb shelters. Then throughout the winter, spring and most of the summer, she said things had calmed down and life went back to relative normality until Iran’s attack on Monday.

Manton said she can’t believe this war is still going on.

“My kids have to live in fear of this crazy reality all the time and it just feels like it’s never going to end,” Manton said. “It was like this a year ago, it’s like this again now, is it going to be like this again next year?”

Manton said she will continue to live her life even with the war going on in the background. She said she hopes every single day for peace in the Middle East.

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