Even after nearly nine months since the war broke out, and after the inpatient wards of the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya moved to the underground emergency shelter, hospital staff still struggle to distinguish between the three Asraf sisters working in the fortified area.
The twins, Yamit Yaakov and Inbal Abutbul, 41, are as identical as two drops of water, and their older sister Sima, 46, looks just like them. "Last week, one of the stretcher-bearers stood frozen in front of me. He asked, how it was possible that he just saw me in another part of the hospital just a moment earlier." Inbal says.
The sisters often complete each other's sentences in the conversation. "We grew up in a house with 10 children, nine girls and one boy," Yamit says. "The bond between us is something you hardly see in other families. That’s just how we are, all connected like glue."
Until five years ago, each sister had a different and mundane life path. Yamit worked in the hospital housekeeping department in Nahariya, Sima was an administrative manager at a factory, and Inbal worked as a clerk in a store. "Everyone told me my job doesn't fit me and that I should work in nursing. I decided to make a life change and brought my two sisters along with me," Yamit says. That was five years ago, and they embarked on a long and challenging journey to acquire a new profession.
Working at the hospital is no easy task, and it is done in an ongoing reality that no one could have imagined. "No one prepared us for such a reality, and we are still new nurses," Inbal says. She works in the orthopedic department, Yamit is in Internal Medicine and Sima in urology. "I wasn't on duty at the hospital on October 7, and I arrived here the next day straight to the underground shelters. This is our reality, and we deal with it." Inbas lays. Yamit finishes her twin sister’s sentence: "Working here is very challenging and stressful."
There is a five-year age gap between the twins and Sima but they consider themselves a trio, as if they were born together. "Outside the hospital, we are always together," Sima says. "In the hospital, we get so much joy and excitement from meeting each other. We don't need anything besides each other."