If there's one question Corporal A. can't hear anymore, it's whether her job is to press the red button. But she has come to terms with it: I guess that's how it is when you activate a warning in the Home Front Command and are responsible for all the red alert alerts and alarms about terrorist infiltrations, missile fire or the infiltration of hostile aircraft, as well as the activation of Memorial Day sirens and the like. But no, her job involves much more than pushing a button, and it's not red at all.
"We have a large system through which we distribute the alerts. We have seconds to decide if and where to trigger the alert. In general, we are the only thing that allows routine," she smiles sheepishly, "this way people can lead normal lives, and when there are sirens, go to a safe place."
Interceptions over Tel Aviv • Recorded alarm
Usually her shift in the operations room at the Home Front Command base lasts 8 hours. A week at a closed base, a week at home. The October 7 shift she will never forget. She had already spent a whole week on base, and was supposed to leave for home on Sunday. It started at 12pm and didn't take a short break until 13pm on Saturday.
"At 6 a.m., we saw on the monitor that volleys were starting," she says. "It started with two or three goals to envelop, and quickly intensified. Alerts have also been issued to Gush Dan, cities in the south, Jerusalem. I live in the Jerusalem area, and when I'm on shift I'm without a phone, so I'm pretty disconnected from life outside. We were in a frenzy, because when there are a lot of alerts at the same time, you have to operate them all together. We were on a holiday routine, very few people remained at the base, suddenly senior officers started arriving, and more sergeants who understood the magnitude of the incident and came to reinforce the operations room."
Corporal A. "There is no time to think", Photo: Report
Only after about two hours, A. and her friends turned on the TV and discovered what had really happened with the terrorist infiltration. "We couldn't really sit and stare in shock at the TV. We opened it only to get a picture of the situation and move on, because the warnings didn't stop. Only after 13 hours did I discover that terrorists had broken into bases in the south, and I have quite a few friends there. Lior Levy, a friend who was with me in the course, was declared missing for several days until they announced that she had been murdered. I think that with every announcement like this about more murdered and more abductees, we realized that we are all connected to this event, that all these names and faces belong to my friends, ours, all of us."
How did it affect you?
"I've been on the job for almost a year, but I think it wasn't until after what happened that I realized how much responsibility there is in this role. A lot of people think it's an automated system, or we're just pressing the red button. But no – I physically trigger the alerts, I physically distribute the alerts to areas."
How does it work in real time?
"When you sit in front of the system during an emergency, you don't have time to think. You need to reduce the alarm so that it is as selective as possible. On the one hand, you're defending the country, and on the other hand, you don't have time to think about what's actually happening in the country."
In the operations room is the Home Front Command base. 8-hour shifts, photo: Report
That morning at the beginning of the war, when an entire country received a warning to enter the protected area, neither A. nor her operations room were responsible. But she, too, knows that sometimes, and especially in times of war, there can be false alarms. "In normal times, there are almost no false alarms," she stresses, "but right now, if we have any doubt, there is no doubt. We would rather have a warning than take a risk, because even a false warning is better than acting without warning. And I say this carefully, because we choose very carefully when and where to trigger the alert. And even when there's load, we're trained to handle it."
She had barely been home since October 7. The first time she went home to her parents and two younger siblings was after 21 days at the base. "They got excited and jumped on me like I was coming back from fighting," she is embarrassed. "My father often says that we are a cog in the system, but a cog is very important, and that's how I want to think about our role. In the end, we are the ones who enable citizens to live a normal life."
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