I'm a product manager at HP in Israel and a volunteer for the border police. This has been the most emotional week of my life.

• Elad Zmora and his family were woken by sirens on October 7 and rushed to their bomb shelter.
• He works as a product team manager at HP in Israel and volunteers for the border patrol police.
• While balancing work and patrol duties, he took a customer Zoom call from his bomb shelter.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Elad Zmora, a 46-year-old product team manager at HP in Israel. Zmora's employment has been verified by Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My family and I were woken up last Saturday morning at about 6:30 a.m. to the sound of a siren.

It took about 10 seconds to realize the siren was real and a further 20 seconds to wake our four children and get into our bomb shelter. My youngest, who is eight, was confused.