For some in Israel it was a restless night because of the Iranian attacks, others consciously went to sleep because they cannot influence the outcome of the events.
Jerusalem - It was a sleepless night for some people in Israel, waiting for an attack from Iran and then worrying about what might follow. For others, the drones and missiles passed by unnoticed - the interception efforts of Israel and allied forces providing a shield for the families as they slept.
“Dramatic night,” read the headline in the Israeli daily
Yedioth Ahronoth
. "The Iranian Attack and Israeli Defense". In Jerusalem, a city rarely hit by airstrikes, the sounds of the interceptors rang like thunder. Air raid sirens wailed; People gathered on balconies or pressed their faces to windows as fireballs lit the sky.
On Sunday morning the streets were quiet after the attack from Iran. Shopkeepers said some people were at the stores to buy supplies of food and water. “It was terrifying. Horrible,” said Mari James, 27, as she left a store with bulging shopping bags. “I think I do this to calm myself down,” she said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Iranian attack became apparent days before
Israeli leaders had been predicting the likelihood of an Iranian attack for days after Israel targeted two Iranian generals in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. On Thursday, the military jammed GPS signals over parts of Tel Aviv without warning, causing chaos on the streets as Google Maps and Waze suddenly showed drivers in Cairo or Beirut.
On Friday, rumors of an impending attack began circulating across the anxious nation. Abu Karam, 45, from the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem said it seemed to him as if the entire neighborhood went outside to watch the attacks early Sunday. “Everyone was awake,” he said. “You can’t watch the sky burn without being afraid,” he added. “What do you tell your children?” They can’t understand what’s happening.”
The Israel Home Front Command, a branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responsible for preparing for emergencies, said on Sunday that Israelis are no longer required to stay near safe spaces or shelters. However, restrictions on large gatherings and a ban on educational activities such as school trips remained in place.
Nearly all drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles sent by Iran were intercepted, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman.
However, one of the few rockets that struck inside Israeli territory appeared to seriously injure one of the country's most vulnerable people: 7-year-old Amina Hassouna from Israel's long-neglected Bedouin community. According to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national emergency service, she suffered a shrapnel wound to the head.
A friend of Amina's father, Farhan Daabouh, reached by phone Sunday, said Amina was still in critical condition.
Israel offers no protection to Bedouins
Because Israel does not recognize many Bedouin villages, communities are often prohibited from building permanent structures, leaving them with little protection in the event of airstrikes. “We are Bedouins, we have no shelter to go to,” Daabouh said. “The State of Israel should provide us with every security measure as we are its citizens, but it does not.
Elsewhere in Israel, MDA paramedics treated 31 people with symptoms of anxiety or injuries sustained while searching for shelter, the organization said.
Some Israelis said they invited friends over when news of an impending attack spread, preferring the company of loved ones to the morgue. However, many slept through the night - some because they hadn't watched the news before bed, others because they felt they had no control over the outcome anyway.
In the ancient port city of Jaffa, 44-year-old Anastasia, a Russian-born mother of three, said she put her cell phone away for the night before putting her daughter to bed with a story. “Just today I read that many people didn’t sleep all night,” she said, declining to give her last name to protect her family in Russia. The same family was the first to come forward, saying they had read the messages and wanted to know if they were safe. “Reading the news doesn’t help anyway,” she said. “When you wake up in the morning and see the sun shining, you know it’s better to just keep living.”
Outside, the sounds of Israeli fighter jets and reconnaissance drones mixed with the songs of birds as fishing boats made their way through the blue sea.
Israeli on Netanyahu's politics: "I expect the worst"
Shaily Niv, 48, a therapist at a nearby hospital, called the overnight attacks the latest in a series of troubling developments in Israel that leave her feeling out of control.
"We can not do anything. I find it impossible to listen to the news and live my life around it, so I just don't do it," she said. She had opened her phone Saturday night to see Panic online and quickly closed it again. “With this government,” she said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet, “I expect the worst possible can."
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on April 14, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.