Ceasefire brings shelter-less residents back above ground, but some still fear more war
Volunteers have turned underground parking lots into bomb shelters amid Iranian missile barrages, giving safety and comfort to countless citizens who hope they won’t have to return
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Four generations of the Panoyan family have lived in the same house in Wadi Nisnas, a predominantly Arab Christian neighborhood in Haifa.
In the beautiful courtyard, with its fruit trees, Rena Panoyan has a studio where she creates and hosts workshops in Armenian ceramic art.
But last week, fear of Iranian ballistic missiles, three of which have hit the northern city, drove the family down into the dark underworld of a nearby subterranean parking lot.
“When you’re underground, you forget what day it is,” said Rena’s son, Matteus, a wedding designer.
As Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities beginning on June 13, Iran responded with indiscriminate ballistic missile fire at Israel’s crowded population centers. Over 550 missiles and roughly 1,000 drones were launched at Israel, killing 28 people and wounding thousands.
On Tuesday, as a fragile ceasefire appeared to hold between Jerusalem and Tehran, the Panoyan family emerged from the underground parking lot where they had spent most of the day and every night and went home.
“There’s relief, but we’ve left stuff there,” said Rena. “We still don’t know what will happen tonight. We just hope things will continue this way and that we’ll have quiet.”
The Panoyans — Rena, husband Zaven, son Matteus and Max the dog — had, like others without access to bomb shelters, taken refuge in the parking lot on Level -3 of City Center, a small mall at the bottom of the northern city’s picturesque German Colony.
There, they spent most of the last week and a half with little more than mattresses, three chairs, a couple of small tables, and a laptop for keeping up with the news.
Rena had brought paints and a few small ceramic objects with designs outlined on them, but said nobody was in the mood to pick up a brush.
The family had returned home in the mornings just to wash, get clean clothes, and prepare food:We were stressed all the time,” said Rena.
“It’s the uncertainty,” added Zaven, who runs a factory for safety attire.
“We’re used to being in the garden, surrounded by art,” Mattheus chimed in.
Three days after Israel’s surprise attack on Iran, the National Security Ministry’s Community Security Authority installed basic supplies in the parking lot, including drinking water, mattresses, two refrigerators, and fans. It created a children’s area with cushions, toys and games. Authority staff worked shifts around the clock.
On Monday, volunteers from the Civilian Operations Arm of the Brothers and Sisters for Israel organization arrived with 75 tents, additional mattresses, plastic camping tables and chairs, as well as a play tent, furnishings, and games for the children’s area. On Tuesday, they were planning to start bringing sandwiches in the evenings.
It was the fifth underground parking lot the nonprofit had outfitted since the start of the Israeli operation against Iran, with funds from the UJA-Federation of New York. The others were located at Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Center, Habima Theater and Central Bus Station, as well as in the central city of Rishon Lezion. Next on the list were the Krayot, north of Haifa, and the southern coastal city of Ashdod.
Brothers and Sisters in Israel CEO Hadas Daniely Yelin told The Times of Israel after the announcement of the Israel-Iran ceasefire on Tuesday that the parking lots were still operating but opening new ones would be postponed. If the ceasefire holds, Daniely Yelin said, the equipment will be collected, with some saved for future events and some donated.
“They’re angels from heaven, I have no words,” said Fairouz Mazawi, after receiving the tents and mattresses in the Haifa parking lot on Monday. A carer with two grown children, she had created a pleasant spot for herself and her two Pomeranian dogs, Kiki and Gucci.
In the evenings, she was joined by her daughter, a sister, four nephews and nieces, and her elderly mother, who slept in an armchair Fairouz brought from home because she was not comfortable on a mattress. A chihuahua, a German Shepherd, and another Pomeranian joined the canine clan.
Fairouz saved her warmest words for Haifa City Council member Kirill Karetnik, who chairs the local community security authority and visited the parking lot daily.
Karetnik arranged for Fairouz’s bedridden father to transfer to an elder care facility after learning that the family was taking him to and from the shelter in a wheelchair and dragging back and forth a pressure mattress to prevent bedsores.
Also grateful to Karetnik was Bracha Atwar, an 81-year-old Jewish woman waiting for a hip operation. Karetnik persuaded the mall, mainly closed because of the war, to open the elevators so that Bracha, unable to climb many stairs, could easily reach the nearest bathroom on the building’s first floor.
“Kiril is fantastic, and the service has been amazing,” she said.
Brothers and Sisters in Israel – The Civilian Operations Arm is an independent offshoot of the pro-democracy protest movement Brothers and Sisters in Arms.
Describing other underground parking lots that the former has equipped so far, Daniely Yelin singled out Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station.
“It was in a terrible state, totally neglected,” she said. “Together with the municipality, we painted the walls, and they put down artificial grass, and we created two separate compounds, one for women and children, the other for everyone. Around 350 people have been using it… We’ve been constantly adding more tents.”
In the parking lot of the Dizengoff Center, those sheltering from the missiles had bonded and held a Friday night prayer event, she said.
“We were adding a new compound every day,” Daniely Yelin said.”We needed the council to give us the space, and the Home Front [Command]’s okay. We have volunteers all over the country to install the equipment, provide food, help with the children, do whatever is needed.”
Daniely Yelin stressed that Brothers and Sisters in Israel has been involved in many activities besides outfitting parking lots and that the group’s main focus continues to be rehabilitating the Gaza and Lebanon borders.
During the war, volunteers could also be found in hospitals that had relocated underground, helping supply non-medical items ranging from hand sanitizer to fleece blankets, eye masks and earplugs to help patients sleep.
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