Nothing is normal any more : war with Hamas reshapes life in Israel | Financial Times

Israelis are being called up in record numbers. Schools have been ordered to close. Streets are deserted. On the pavements outside normally crowded cafés, empty chairs are stacked away: in the days since Hamas militants inflicted the worst-ever death toll in a single attack in Israel, almost no facet of life in the country has been left untouched.

Everyone has family members or knows people who were murdered, or has kids that we don t know where they are, said Talya Hurwitz, who works in a café in Jerusalem. It s the most traumatic event in my adult life.

Hamas s assault during which hundreds of militants burst through Israel s barrier around the Gaza Strip, before rampaging through the towns and villages in the countryside around the blockaded Palestinian enclave was an epoch-defining event in Israeli history. Per head of population, it has claimed a larger toll than the September 11 2001 attacks on the US.

via www.ft.com