I was caught in the "middle east conflict" 3 nights ago. For the most part, life carried on as usual. I still go the movies and attend shows with my friends. There is a little theater that we like to frequent just across the Gaza strip. We usually have no problem getting there but this time we encountered soldiers on our route. It was difficult to tell whether they were friendly or not but they had guns and they did not shoot at us. We had a raucous good time at the theater as usual. But no more than 3 minutes after I got back to my apartment, as I was pouring hot water into my french press, artillery shells tore through my building and took out two of my neighbors next to me. The most curious thing is that it left my unit intact except for the substantial hole in my east living room wall. Nothing was damaged in my apartment as far as I could tell. Even the Van Gogh painting that I've hung on the east living room wall stayed put, the left corners of the frame jutting out into the hole. An improbable scenario, the more I think about it. I am not a forensic expert but you'd think that any blast that can take out a part of the wall would knock some debris into my apartment. Instead, the wall fell outward. My unit remained pristine aside from the hole and a light dusting of concrete powder.

I was surprised to find that I had hung on to my electric kettle during the blast, I did not spill any water. With both ears ringing, I took a few tentative steps into the living room after I realize what had happened. I peered through the hole in the living room and through the mess of twisted metal rebar, I saw my neighbor laying on his dining table, looking at the ceiling. His right arm was folded underneath him in the most unnatural way. A sheet of blood poured from the table to the ground. It looked like a painterly depiction of a sacrifice.