After 3,970 Katyushas...

After 3,970 Katyusha missiles and thousands of mortar bombs, anti tanks missiles and anti aircraft missiles the quiet has finally returned to the north. For me it too another week and a half in the Tel Aviv area, many sleepless nights and 4 hours on a completely packed bus with heavy traffic to go back home.

As the bus was approaching the north everybody started looking out the windows, trying to determine what has changed, what is ruined, what is burnt…? Even the bus driver was slowing down announcing in the microphone that we should take a look around and assess the damage.

The bus was filled with people, after the government announced that public transportation towards the north is free with a valid ID that shows your northern address. Many people had to stand up during the whole ride, the whole 4 hours! I don't understand why they didn't allow more buses; don't they understand that people were anxious to go home after 5 weeks away?

The damage was soon very clear to all of us, seeing the acres of burnt woods, which will takes years and years to grow back. One of the biggest tourist attractions of the Upper Galilee is the endless green and woods, which is now gone. In Kiryat Shmona we could see the destruction clearly where every few houses there was one that got hit, a broken rode, a traffic light that is now gone and tons and tons of bomb shreds.

The roads to Metulla are in horrible shape too, and not just because of various halls due to Katyusha that fell around, but also because of the heavy army traffic of tanks and such, it will probably take years to fix all that. Reserves soldiers are everywhere here, some are laying on a small grassy area not far from my house, trying to catch up on some sleep after fighting for days and weeks. My mom invited some of them to stay at our house, take a shower, eat or even just relax. I bet no one appreciates home like they do. When I was in the army I learned to appreciate my house so much, and I wasn't a fighter at all. Imagine weeks of fighting in the middle of nowhere, with a couple of hours of sleep a night, terrible canned food and no showers.

This war has brought along many heart to heart conversations between my dad and I regarding the situation, politics and most of all war stories. My dad did his army service in the armor forces, which is a part of infantry. My dad was 20 when the Yom Kippur war started, during his regular service. He was telling me how my grandma thought he was in Be'er Sheva (a city in the Negev, southern Israel) during the war, when he was in fact fighting in the Sinai desert and in the Suez Canal against the Egyptians. My dad lost 40 of his unit friends, as they were killed right in front of him. It is amazing to think how a person can survive such a war and have a normal life with such emotional baggage.

For 155 soldiers and civilians, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze, who lost their lives from the terrible Katyusha missiles and in the battle field, this ceasefire is almost meaningless. Their families will never be the same again. For 604 injured civilians and a similar number of injured soldiers who lost arms, legs, got their faces demolished, some paralyzed, some who will never be able to be independent ever again life is also changed forever. Over 2,000 civilians have anxiety injuries and will need psychological care for a very long time before returning to their normal lives.

Yehi Zichram Baruch.