‘The longest 15 minutes of my life… then we cried’: An eye-witness’s terrifying account of Iran’s shocking attack on Israel

Four huge explosions in the wee hours of Sunday morning heralded the start of the attack. The explosions shook our apartment. Incredibly, they didn’t wake our three-month-old baby, Eden.

In the sky outside our window, my husband David and I saw flashes and streaks of blinding light.

We did not know if the explosions were from the impact of Iranian missiles and drones hitting the city, or if our air defenses intercepted the bombs.

We live on the fourth floor of a 300-year-old building in Talpiot, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

In buildings all around us we could hear people screaming – were they just terrified or were they injured?

Pictured: An anti-missile system in Israel intercepting rockets launched from the Gaza Strip earlier this year

I first read about the early warnings of the attack when I checked my cell phone just after 7pm on Saturday evening.

David immediately ran to the local store to get water. Everyone was panic buying, he said.

We tried to remain calm, but Eden sensed our tension and cried for a long time.

Finally she fell asleep. We didn’t. I sat down next to the crib, ready to hold her.

When the sirens went off, the sound was harrowing. Our building does not have a fallout shelter.

The official advice is that residents should take cover within 90 seconds in the ground floor stairwell, the safest place in the event of a bomb attack.

We took our take-along bags containing passports, phones and other essentials and joined our neighbors who crowded into the space under the stairs.

Everyone was in nightwear and dressing gowns – about thirty people from the eight apartments, including three families with young children and teenagers.

The adults remained calm, but the little ones were crying and very scared. They were old enough to know that we were all in grave danger. They couldn’t understand why it happened.

I held my baby and tried to breathe deeply. My husband was shaking uncontrollably, with his arms around us.

In the photo, parts of a missile launched by Iran were found in Amman, Jordan, on April 14

Drones or missiles battling for targets in secret locations in northern Israel, pictured April 14

I could tell he felt so much responsibility to protect his young family. All this adrenaline was rushing through our bodies and there was nothing we could do but wait.

Nobody was talking. We were all silent, praying and thinking of our loved ones. We waited for the sirens to start again.

There is no official ‘all clear’ alarm. Government advice is that it is safe to return to our homes 15 minutes after the sirens stop.

That was the longest fifteen minutes of my life.

When we got back to our apartment and realized that we had survived the danger, we were both struck with overwhelming sadness.

We held each other and let ourselves cry. And then we drank a glass of water, tried to calm our nerves and started to regroup in case it happened again.