Terrified Brit-Israelis have told The Mirror how they are having to flee a hellish near-constant barrage of Hezbollah missiles as the Middle East edges towards all-out war. Daily rocket salvos have driven them from nightmare bombardments on their north Israel homes and many are considering re-locating elsewhere in the world , even back to the UK. A Daily Mirror team experienced Hezbollah’s frontline onslaught as we stayed overnight in one of the evacuees’ Golan Heights boltholes in the Ein Zivan Kibbutz.
Even though they are relatively safer in the Golan Heights, now the rockets and missiles have pursued them to their homes, making nowhere in this region safe. We met them in the Golan Heights shortly before the latest escalation as Israel smashed Hezbollah with 100 warplanes, pulversing terror positions in Lebanon. Across the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and northern Israel daily Hezbollah rockets are leaving many communities ghost towns, with failing businesses and blown up homes.
As we approach one family home in Ein Zivan Kibbutz, huge swathes of grounds are scorched back with missile impact strike marks. We met one family, the soldier husband badly-injured in a Hezbollah blast, who have been forced to flee their house on the frontline -only to be terrorised again by more rockets on their new temporary shelter. Grandmother-of-eight Sandy Kanner-Menir, 68, is a divorcee teacher, who lives in the Ein Zivan Kibbutz in the Golan Heights.
She has lived here for years, although her daughter Ettie and her family have now joined her. Sandy tells us: "We are terrified every day here. “The rockets come in most nights as we are so close to the Lebanon border - but we are also just two miles from Syria and so close to Lebanon.
“I have thought about leaving - my whole family has. I just don't know what we will do. It happens all the time.
” Many nights are spent by Sandy in her secure safe room, a thick steel blast door used to protect her against bombs and a special device to stop terrorists bursting in. Sandy runs Sandy's Cottage Airbnb on the Kibbutz but the war has been a disaster for her business. As we speak the loud crump of Hezbollah bombs breaks the evening silence as 20 are sent smashing into northern Israel.
Explosions from Israeli defences blasting the Lebanese militant weapons out of the sky send streaks of light across the night sky, wild dogs in the countryside barking in terror. Two missiles hit homes in Kiryat Shmona nearby but fortunately residents were believed to be in shelters. Sandy’s daughter, dual national Brit-Israeli Ettie Menir Yosef, 44, who used to live in London, is sheltering in Ein Zivan, in the Golan Heights, having fled her frontier home in Metula, north Israel.
In Ein Zivan, the entire community is still in mourning after a couple from the next Kibbutz was killed a month ago by a direct strike on their car, leaving their three children orphaned a month ago. Noa and Nir Baranes, both 46, died on their way home to Kibbutz Ortal, the missile that hit them a revenge attack for Israeli troops killing a bodyguard of Hezbolla chief hassan Nasrallah. After a night of hearing the dull crumps of blasts from Hezbollah’s latest cross-border attacks teacher Ettie told us: “We cannot go on like this, the constant bombing.
“We may have to leave, maybe escape to Greece or Thailand, maybe even the UK even, but we cannot live like this, fearing for our lives and the lives of my children. “Your whole world is shaken when this happens. The bombs make the ground shake, the windows rattle, the whole house moves.
“You feel like having a heart attack as it’s getting closer all the time and afterwards you cannot breathe, from the smell of fire outside. “The blue sky turns grey with smoke and it’s in your nose for hours. The Golan is beautiful and yet when you drive through it after an attack, it’s heartbreaking.
” After one blast a few miles away in the darkness her daughter Zoe, four, a twin with son Andy, runs up to her mum, hugging her and telling Ettie: “Mummy - it’s a good bomb,” in Hebrew. Ettie tells us: “Bless her - what she means is that the latest blast is the Israeli Iron Dome defences blasting the Hezbollah missiles out of the sky, thank goodness. “She’s only four years-old and she’s reassuring her mum with her knowledge of what a certain explosion sounds like - it’s truly terrifying and awful.
“Her father is a shadow of his former self, having been blown up by Hezbollah and it has traumatised the children and all of us are suffering. “And what happened the Baranes couple was truly heartbreaking. We have all been mourning for them.
Their poor children.” Shortly after the October 7 Hamas Gaza attacks which killed some 1,189 and kidnapped a further 250, many still being held in the Strip, Ettie’s family fled their Metula home on the border with Lebanon. She adds: “My husband Sharon had been called up for duty as a military veteran and member of the emergency squad guarding the frontline.
“I packed the kids and the pets into our car and drove to stay with my mum in the Golan Heights, here in the Kibbutz and we have been here since then. “But, whilst it’s safer here, we’re still being attacked.” Since Ettie and her family, son Eitan, 16 and twins Andy and Zoe, four evacuated but in the ensuing months their Metuala family home was hit directly by a Hezbollah missile.
Thankfully they had all fled to the relative safety of the Golan heights. She says: “It is just devastating, obviously, everything was destroyed but we have to keep going.” Israel-born Ettie’s injured husband Sharon Yousef, 34, an IDF veteran and now a member of the military “Kitat Konenut” or “Emergency Squad” was called out immediately on October 7.
He was regularly seeing his family in the Golan Heights but spending most of his time in Metula preparing for a major Hezbollah ground incursion. He says: “We were ready for them and thought there would be some kind of infiltration. “We were concerned about Hezbollah using tunnels to get into Israel.
They have built them before and they have been discovered . “I do not know if there are more tunnels now but it is a concern. “On June 22 myself and a colleague and friend, David, and I were assisting families evacuating because of the rocket alerts.
“We were trying to help two families get things from their houses. “We were both in an All Terrain Vehicle and it was hit by a rocket - David lost an eye and was badly injured. “I have shrapnel still in my body and have huge problems with my hearing.
I was in hospital for three days but David’s recovery will take much longer. He is critical. “As we approached the house I had a really bad feeling something was going to happen.
“When the rocket hit I was still inside and my friend was screaming nearby. “I took him and dragged him to safety before struggling back to the ATV to get the radio and call for help. I warned my colleagues not to come too quick in case of a second strike.
“Eventually we got to hospital and survived. “Now I have good days and bad days. It helps to talk but it is not easy.
” A family friend arrives at the home, Leeds-born David Spellman, 80, a Brit-Israeli former Kibbutz official who moved here more than half a century ago. Ominously he tells me: “In all the time I have been here, apart from the immediate aftermath of October 7, this is the worst period of time we have experienced. “This is a totally new situation and this country is extremely resilient.
“But this really is a new situation and, yes it worries me.” As we leave the Kibbutz and head back to Jerusalem heavily-armed guards at the gate of the complex smile and wish us luck. One says: “If you come back, please be careful.
The situation is changing. “But we are here to protect the Kibbutz and all of the people here. “If the terrorists come again, it will not end well for them.
“We are waiting.” Hours later everyone we met was once again fleeing for the safety of their shelters, by now a near-nightly occurrence as this dreadful war escalates..
