Even as They Are Driven Into Bomb Shelters, Many Ordinary Israelis Support the Attack on Iran
Israel has taken on the eerie quiet of a ghost town. Shops are closed, streets nearly empty. The occasional car races to its destination.
In the supermarkets, many shelves are empty, usually of basic necessities: No bread, no milk, no eggs, no diapers and no bottled water for what may be extended stays in bomb shelters. Israelis have stocked up not knowing what their government is planning and how this will unfold.
Israel's sudden attack on Iran that began at 3 a.m. on June 13, Friday, didn't catch only the Iranians by surprise. No one in Israel expected a full-scale assault—not before the end of the school year; before talks on Iran's nuclear program ended between the U.S. and Iran; or before the controversially lavish, wedding of Avner Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to take place three days later.
When the sirens first went off in towns and cities across the country very early Friday morning, many people stayed in bed, knowing that earlier campaigns had wiped out the rocket capabilities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Israel's western flank, and Hezbollah, on its northern border. An impending attack wasn't on their radar.
'I was preparing food for the Sabbath on Friday morning, kubbeh and borekas, and I turned on the radio and was shocked,' said Rivka Benayim, a cashier at a supermarket in Jerusalem. Her store had no baby wipes, fresh chicken or tomatoes and very little milk. 'I had no idea we were at war with Iran.'
Israelis now realize that a tit-for-tat with Iran is nothing like a barrage of rockets from Palestinian militants in the Gaza, or from Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. The reach and destructive power of Iran's missiles has made everyone feel vulnerable.
'Hamas fired rockets made out of traffic sign poles,' said Shlomo Alkobi, 25, an employee at a cellphone company service center, at work in a job classified by the Isareli government as essential. 'Those are like kindergarten games compared to Iran's ballistic missiles.'
So it is that, since the first barrages landed, even more Israelis than usual have been heeding the Home Front Command's alerts that flash on their cellphone screens, TV sets and radio programs when the missiles get close, often accompanied by a frightening screeching alarm.
In Israel, there are three types of "safe space." Any apartment building constructed after1992 has a reinforced room, or mamad, in each apartment (a requirement put in place after Saddam Hussein's Iraq launched Scud missiles toward it during the First Gulf War). Older buildings may have a shared bomb shelter under ground. For people who find themselves driving when the sirens sound, or on foot, or in a building with no reinforced space, the only option is to run to a public shelters that dot populated areas around the country.
During a Hamas missile barrage, an elderly relative of mine would settle for sitting on the steps in the stairwell of his second-floor apartment in Bat Yam, a coastal suburb of Tel Aviv. But with the Iranian salvos, he has been making his way down to the building's first-floor bomb shelter a couple times a day and waiting with the rest of the tenants for the all clear. His first time down there, he was appalled to discover it was filled with a thick layer of dust, and the clutter of bicycles and a baby carriage.
On the second night, his focus was elsewhere. An Iranian missile struck an apartment building 500 meters away from his. Five people were killed.
'We could feel the shock waves underground,' he said.
Many Israelis are shocked by the level of destruction. While Israel's military does not reveal damage to its installations, it encourages people to film damage to civilian areas. Israeli reporters say they have never seen such devastation, at least in person; the results of their military's work in Gaza appears on TV.
Some communities are entirely unprotected. The desert villages of Bedouin Israelis lack shelters because the government refuses to recognize their settlements. Residents have been entirely exposed; some have taken cover under highway bridges.
Many villages of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian (who account for 20 percent of the country's population) also lack shelters. But in those that do have them, the assumption that they would not be targeted by Iranian missiles has been enough to keep some from seeking whatever shelter might be available.
The illusion shattered Saturday night, when a missile that appeared bound for the northern city of Haifa struck a villa in nearby Tamra, killing four women from the Khatib family. Locals point to video taken from their rooftops and say the missile fell after an Iron Dome anti-missile battery tried to intercept it, changing its trajectory. The victims had a safe room built in their home, but had not entered it.
Israel has long claimed that it avoids civilian casualties, while accusing Iran of intentionally targeting noncombatants. But Israeli strikes on Iran, which began with precise strikes on leading regime figures, have also killed scores of civilians. A human rights group put the total at 406 through June 15.
Iran may also be targeting senior security figures in Israeli residential buildings. Over the last year, Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, has uncovered nearly 30 cases of espionage and subversion by Israelis, mostly Jews, recruited to work for Iran. In some cases, Tehran sought to gather information on former senior officials in the security establishment, including their home address and daily routines.
In Rishon L'Tzion, south of Tel Aviv, an Iranian missile struck near the former home of a former high ranking security official early Saturday, June 14. Asked if he believed he might have been the target, he told Maariv newspaper that if he was, the Iranians 'haven't updated their lists since 2007.'
Israel's death toll reached 24 in four nights—far less than in Iran, with more than 220 killed —and a fraction of the number of Palestinians killed in an average day in Gaza. Yet for Israelis, it's a jarring loss. In the 17 years between 2004 to 2021, only 32 civilians were killed inside Israel by rockets out of Gaza.
Even so, many here are excited by the attack on Iran. Israelis are expecting nothing less than regime change. Religious Jews were filmed dancing in celebration in an underground parking lot where they took cover during an air raid siren.
'They have been threatening to destroy us for years,' said Alkobi, the cell phone merchant. 'We are removing the threat. I want to annihilate them. Assassinate the whole regime.'
Ayala Hasson, an anchor on Israel's national television, called it a 'dramatic historic day' and had difficulty suppressing her smile. On the radio, an Israeli news reporter thanked a pilot for his service before interviewing him.
But not all Israelis are cheering. Some expressed wariness of how the new war would end. Others remained focused on the one it interrupted.
'They no longer open every TV program with a mention of the number of hostages and the days in captivity,' Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itsik died in capativity, wrote on X.
'There is no discussion in the studios about the kidnapped people…From today, we are counting barrages, missiles, and deaths, not hostages. Netanyahu reset the war clock, and erased the calendar of desolation. Don't forget, echo, keep counting, don't be silent until they return.'
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