A dance professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal recounts what she experienced during the Hamas surprise attack in Israel last Saturday.
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Caroline Laurin-Beaucage was in Jerusalem as a choreographer for a show with an Israeli, a Palestinian and a Russian as part of a dance festival.
“There are bombproof rooms in hotels. There are places of refuge. From the moment we hear the alarm signal, we have 90 seconds to seek refuge and we will stay there for ten minutes.”
“I feel like a month has passed between last Saturday and Saturday of this week,” she says.
“I realize how lucky I was that day,” she says.
Since she was invited as part of a festival, she also had the opportunity to get in touch with an employee of the Canadian Department of Public Affairs, whom she met at the fair and who helped her return to the country.
She also reports that Israelis are used to seeking shelter in bomb shelters when an alarm occurs. However, this does not apply to tourists.
“I think of those who have to live with this reality every day, a reality that for me is surreal,” she concluded.
Remember that many Quebecers and Canadians are currently still stuck in a war zone.