unpowered yachts fill the marina of Ascaló, ghost town, 140,000 inhabitants, and nothing makes you think of imminent crossings despite the wind from nowhere and the calm sea. Who wants to sail twelve kilometers north of the Gaza Strip, from where intermittent explosions come?
“We lived like in Europe and now we act like Arabs. We don’t like it, but there is no other choice.” Tony is 31 years old and owns the only open business in this closed sports marina, apart from a pharmacy.
Ashkelon, Sderot and Ofakim were the cities most affected by the Hamas incursions and the launch of rockets on October 7, so the vast majority of their inhabitants closed their houses and moved north. And those who stayed no longer look the same.
Tony’s business is a coffee shop in use. Well, he could be considered a barista, because he serves excellent coffee and to the customer’s taste, pleasing himself with the cloud of foam and the addition of a glass of fresh water, courtesy of the house, dreaming perhaps Ascaló is Amalfi.
Ascaló is not Amalfi and is attached to Gaza, from where some inhabitants were expelled in 1948 from Al-Majdal – today Ascaló – in the direction of the strip. Suddenly, the terror of October 7, 2023 made them understand – in a pinch – that Gaza is not only invisible and can be ignored, but that it is very close and has the ability to convert their lifestyle – with marinas, pleasure boats, sushi restaurants and organic Italian ice cream – in the worst of hells. According to the Israeli authorities, there are 120,000 internally displaced people.
“My cousin died in the attack – and he shows the photos, including the funeral -. He died in his underpants. She was going through a divorce and was sleeping with two of the four children. The terrorists entered the kibbutz and managed to kill two or three until they threw a grenade inside the house. My cousin jumped on top of it to save the children, they came out unharmed. A son who had gone fishing was also shot dead.”
Israel has been a welcoming land and home for the Jews of half the world. Today, for the first time, Israelis born here, like Tony, are starting to think – or have already decided – to emigrate, and the business is doing well for him. “Never, I had never considered it. But I have a young daughter and I don’t want her to grow up here because I don’t see the end, I don’t see any solution. Where would I like to go? I like the Netherlands a lot. It is a country at peace”.
The streets and avenues of Ascaló are deserted, even of policemen or soldiers. Those who did not leave, many elderly people, hardly leave the house. Alarms sound every day, and the missiles sent from Gaza are routinely shot down in the sky by the anti-aircraft shield. That’s enough: the inhabitants of these lands bordering on the strip have lost the comfortable, predictable and western life symbolized by the dozens of yachts and still boats in the sports marina.
“My wife and two children have gone to a hotel near Tel-Aviv. I open the pet food store – one of the few open -. I don’t know what we will do. Perhaps we have lost the technology, to believe that it would have prevented what happened. We lived so confident. When the war is over, these mistakes will have to be cleared up”, explains Avi, 38 years old, who came over to greet Tony and make a coffee.
Everyone takes it for granted that the Israeli army will enter Gaza, clear the strip of Hamas terrorists and then… No one is clear about this after, in Tony’s cafe.
Another distant explosion. And another impeccable coffee served by Tony to a middle-aged couple who say they are in love with Barcelona (like many people in Tel-Aviv). This atrocious war and the one to come are paradoxical: never before have two contenders been so far apart in their ways of life. Israel has all the technological sophistication in the world, trains leave and arrive on time, couples travel to Barcelona and security seemed perfect. Gaza is overcrowding, chaotic streets, extended cables and underground tunnels that instill panic in the face of the Israeli army’s land invasion.
Just twelve kilometers from Ascaló.
