Brit caught in Iran's revenge strike in Israel says she was buoyed by her ‘blitz spirit'
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A BRITISH woman caught in Iran's revenge strikes after the US atom plant attack told how she was buoyed by her 'blitz spirit' yesterday.
Nicola Simmonds, 58, was rocked by the biggest ballistic missile to blast Tel Aviv early yesterday.
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Nicola Simmonds, 58, was rocked by the biggest ballistic missile to blast Tel Aviv
Credit: Doug Seeburg
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Israeli emergency teams work at the site of an Iranian missile strike on a residential building complex in Tel Aviv
Credit: EPA
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Israeli emergency teams arrive at the scene and launch search and rescue operations
Credit: Getty
The tour guide told how fellow shelter dwellers gasped in terror as the explosion wrecked a low rise housing block and sent a blast of air through her bunker.
Nicola - who grew up in Mill Hill, North London but now lives in the Ramat Aviv suburb 10 miles north of the city centre - said: 'I've heard blast before in recent days but nothing like this.
'There was an enormous boom followed by a rush of air and we knew this was big and very close.
'But I'm British and my grandfather was a volunteer ambulance driver in the London blitz - so I strangely didn't feel as afraid as everyone else.
'It was against all advice but I, kind of, crawled out of my hole and found myself heading straight for the site of the explosion.
'It's strange but it really did feel like the blitz - what my grandfather had braved in London, I was now experiencing in Tel Aviv.'
A five storey block 600 metres from Nicola's home was devastated at 8am yesterday by an enormous Iranian missile strike.
Bedding, clothes and belongings hung from the blown out shell of a block with other buildings blackened, cars wrecked and glass and debris strewn across the neighbourhood.
The Sun's team took cover in a hotel shelter at 7.30am yesterday when sirens and alerts signalled the first revenge attack after Operation Midnight Hammer.
Walls of our shelter in the city centre hotel shook violently as a series of explosions ripped through the air above.
Wounded Iran immediately lashes out at Israel launching volleys of ballistic missiles causing 'large-scale destruction'
Ramat Aviv took the biggest hit of the attack in the bustling coastal city as families across the country cowered bomb shelters.
Gran-of-three Shevi Lahav - an 84-year-old holocaust survivor - told The Sun: 'I live on the fourth floor of a nine story block but don't know if I have a home to go back to now.
'I fled from the Nazis in Russian for two years in World War II and it's hard to believe I'm being attacked again.
'I was in the shelter but god knows what would have happened to me if I hadn't reached the shelter.
'But we won't give in - we didn't give in then and we won't give in now.'
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Tel Aviv residents shelter in a hotel bunker as Iranian missiles hit the Israeli city
Credit: Doug Seeburg
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
US bombs Iran: See how operation unfolded, Iranian nuclear sites map
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
US issues warning on heightened threat of attacks by Iran
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The National
2 hours ago
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The proscribing of Palestine Action not only forms part of an assault on activism, but also showcases how counter-terrorism has become increasingly anti-Palestinian in its orientation, with British authorities deliberately and systematically conflating support for Palestine with terrorism. Academics and human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have long detailed experiences of harassment by counter-terror police, based on actual or perceived support of Palestinian rights. The UK Government Prevent programme has played a significant part in securitising Palestinian activism, with schools students as young as five being reported to authorities after expressing sentiments in support of Palestine. Since the start of massive Israeli violence in Gaza in October 2023, such reports have skyrocketed by 455%, with students told to remove badges, stickers and T-shirts that have 'free Palestine' on them, alleged retaliatory measures against college students for tweeting support or joining pickets for Palestine; and reports of university exclusions, suspensions and investigations, as well as the cancellations of pro-Palestinian events. This normalisation of targeting of pro-Palestinian activism has had severe legal impacts, leading to prosecutions based on anti-activist sentiment. These include the prosecution of three women who displayed images of paragliders during a protest and a man for wearing a green Saudi Arabian headband containing the basic statement of the Islamic faith 'shahada', on the charge of 'carrying or displaying an article in a public place in such a way as to arouse reasonable suspicion' that they were supporting Hamas. In addition to the long trend by successive UK governments of criminalising Palestinian activism, proscription now frames it as a terror threat – equating Palestinian activism with, for instance, the 2005 London bombings, the murder of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, or the execution of 77 left-wing youth at Utøya, Norway. The use of such powers has frightening implications for Palestinian activism, not just because it will be framed as a security threat to the British state, but also because of how such legislation is constructed. The Act of Proscription, as detailed under Part II of the Terrorism Act 2000, not only makes it illegal to be a member of a banned group, but also criminalises a host of other actions that are, or can be perceived as, being linked to the aims or objectives of the group. It is not just a terror offence to belong, or profess to belong to, a proscribed organisation, in the UK or overseas – it is a terror offence to engage in acts that may be considered as supportive. Under Part II, Section 12 of the Act, supportive acts are defined as 'moral support or approval' of a proscribed organisation, expressing an opinion or belief supportive of a proscribed organisation, or encouraging support for the activities of such an organisation. The implementation of this law, when used against a non-violent Palestinian activist group, is the criminalisation of anyone who publicly expresses sentiment in support of Palestine Action's aims. Its website lists these as 'ending global participation in Israel's genocidal and apartheid regime' and seeking to 'make it impossible for … companies to profit from the oppression of Palestinians' Proscription also criminalises the wearing of clothing or carrying of signs that may 'arouse reasonable suspicion' that an individual supports a proscribed organisation, under Section 13 of the Act. This includes publishing images of such items online. Pro-Palestinian clothes, the Palestinian keffiyeh, Palestinian flags and signs are now very squarely in the crosshairs of counter-terror police, creating a vast array of possibility for prosecution of activists. The proscription of Palestine Action places people in Scotland and across Britain in very dangerous legal territory. Heavy-handed measures are increasingly being deployed by the British state to prosecute non-violent groups and activists as 'terrorists'. Successive UK governments have sought to roll back human and democratic rights under the guise of counter-terrorism, prevent activism critical of the British state, and to conflate Muslim communities and Middle Eastern issues with terrorism. The banning of Palestine Action represents an attempt to crush dissent that highlights British complicity in war crimes and embarrasses the UK Government. It also introduces a host of deeply worrying possibilities for the prosecution of activists, journalists, academics – indeed, anyone who speaks out in support of Palestinian rights, an end to the genocide and the use of public activism. Proscription shows the contempt the UK Government has for Palestinian freedom, and should be a loud alarm for those who value democracy and human rights, in times of genocide. Richard McNeil-Willson lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at the University of Edinburgh
