Hundreds of Australians fled Israel when the war began. These ones decided to stay
The latest air-raid siren went off less than half an hour ago, and it's given Emma Hoffman a chance to make her point.
"I don't want our kids to have to get used to that," the Melburnian says.
Her wife, Tuvit Reuven, makes a face and says: "It's fine. I grew up here. It's not that bad."
Ever since Hamas' attack on Israel, they've been sleeping in the bomb shelter in their Tel Aviv apartment.
Emma, a dual Australian-Israeli citizen, immigrated to be with her wife six years ago.
As several repatriation flights left Ben Gurion Airport this week, the 33-year-old felt torn, but was one of hundreds of Australians who decided to stay.
"I don't want to abandon her," she said of her wife, who is Israeli.
"There were a lot of conversations between us, and also with me and my family and friends and other Aussies.
"Even if I left, my head and my heart would still be here, and I don't think that I would feel any less stressed or worried anywhere else in the world."
The pair are planning to start a family soon, but the rocket fire over the past two weeks has made the prospect of raising children in Tel Aviv a point of contention in their house.
It's a conversation another Aussie, Luke, knows well.
Loading..."I don't know if you saw the video from the airport in Sydney where the people were rolling in from Israel," he says.
"It breaks my heart because I can see the connection.
"I can feel how much safer they feel. They're very relieved that they're there. And then I'm over here."
The first Australian repatriation flight arrived back in Sydney on Tuesday night, with a second on Wednesday and a third on Friday.
No further repatriation flights have been arranged at this stage, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) smartraveller service advising: "Assisted departure flights may not continue."
Luke, 45, grew up in country Victoria, but has been in Tel Aviv for the past 10 years with his Israeli wife. They now have two young children.
He loves Australia, and the prospect of raising their family there remains on the cards one day — just not now.
"I've had opportunities in this country that I wouldn't have ever had back home," the writer and video producer says.
"I'm staying and I know other Aussies here have made the same decision, which is hard and makes me feel better about it because I know there's a little community of us that have the same situation."
'It's hard to understand'
Gazing out across the city from her law firm's slick city headquarters, leaving was never something Lisa Segelov considered.
Three of her four children are in the military.
"I mean, Australia is a beautiful country, and totally the lucky country," she says.
"I'm glad that I'm Australian, but I feel that this is home.
"It's a bit of a paradox. It's a bit it's hard to understand. Yeah, but this is definitely my home, even though I love Australia."
The mother-of-four grew up in Sydney, but has lived in Israel for more than three decades.
Her best friend, Nicky Maor, is another Sydneysider who immigrated to Israel at the same time.
All three of her children are in the army.
"I'm not leaving them, not for a moment," she says.
"I can't believe that I would ever be able to live outside of Israel knowing that my heart is still here and my, you know, I just couldn't focus my life in Australia because that's not what my heart is."
Jerusalem woman Melanie Landau moved to Israel from Melbourne 12 years ago.
"My whole family's in Australia, so even before I felt split, but now I feel even more split because part of me just like, you know, wants to be there," she says.
While she says she can understand why people would go back, both her adult children are in Israel and she's trying to be brave.
"It just feels like really walking this tightrope," she says.
"It's trying to not fall into the fear, because the thing with terror is that it also sort of conquers your mind and it paralyses you."