As war in the Middle East ripples out from the Israeli and US strikes on Iran at the weekend, accounts of life under fire came from a Bermudian in Dubai and a Bermudian-linked woman 1,300 miles away in Israel.

In northern Israel, Margaretha Vinakur, 70, tried to take a relaxed view at the conflict even as she endured constant alarms over missile attacks — including having to shelter yesterday as alerts were raised again during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

“And I am living in the Valley of Peace,” said Ms Vinakur, who grew up in Bermuda and has close family on the island. She added: “I wish I was in Bermuda.”

In her agricultural community of Yoqneam Ha Moshava, fighter jets roar from the airport nearby, and the village hall is now “full of soldiers, maybe 100”, she said.

She said of the Iranians: “I think I’m starting to catch their strategy. They are starting in the south and going north, then to us.”

Ms Vinakur told of going out yesterday with a neighbour in her car to pick up baked goods, with Purim festivities on hold and many people sheltering at home.

The two women had to sprint from the vehicle, accompanied by Ms Vinakur’s dog, for “the nearest bunker” after alarms sounded.

“There were the two of us, sitting with about 25 soldiers,” she said.

Munitions fired across Israel are largely shot down by the country’s sophisticated air defences. Ms Vinakur said: “If Israel didn’t have the Iron Dome, we would be flattened. We’re very lucky.”

Conditions at her village, known as a moshav, were “pretty quiet right now”. She said she was “surprised” her conversation with a reporter had not been interrupted.

“Yesterday, maybe every 20 minutes, there was an alarm.”

Ms Vinakur, an avowed pacifist, said with her long history in Israel, “this is the third time around for me” in terms of enduring regional conflict.

“There are frightening moments when the alarm goes off, and you hear on the phone where it’s coming from, and you see on the news the places that got hit.”

James Barrow, a 17-year-resident “proud Bermudian” in the United Arab Emirates metropolis, told The Royal Gazette of the surreal experience of drinks with friends while watching missiles streak near the city and falling afoul of air defences, hours after fighting broke out on Saturday.

Mr Barrow said the city was contending with the crashing remnants of Iranian munitions.

He insisted that accounts online of mass fear amounted to social-media scaremongering — even as Iranian armaments target American assets close a site of his work as a project manager.

Mr Barrow, who first moved to Dubai to work on the city’s towering Burj Khalifa skyscraper, is working now on a data centre that had to be abandoned “because of falling debris”, due to its proximity to the Al Dhafra base being used by US forces.

He said Iran was targeting sites used by the US military and the CIA.

“Everything that’s been hit, it’s falling debris from intercepted missiles, not direct strikes,” Mr Barrow said.

“They’re not aiming at hotels or residential areas. They’re trying to get the US. It’s as simple as that.”

He described being with colleagues at the Hilton beach bar, sipping margaritas and looking out at the white trails of missiles getting shot down.

“Nobody’s fazed that much,” Mr Barrow added. “I look on TV and see all these social media posts being put on the world news. But you can go on my balcony and look outside — we don’t have crickets, but if we did, they would be twittering away.”