Israelis are being forced underground in major cities as Iranian missiles rain down in retaliatory strikes

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4 hours ago

The streets of Tel Aviv often feel a world away from conflict. It's a bustling cosmopolitan city whose residents lap up the Mediterranean sun on kilometres of beaches.
But the mood across Israel's largest metropolitan area is currently subdued. Its usual gridlocked traffic has disappeared, and many businesses are closed.
Nowhere is that more apparent than at Tel Aviv's Carmel Market — if it's not the heart, then it's certainly the stomach of the city.
The usual cacophony of shopkeepers and customers squeezing through its narrow laneways has been replaced by a tense and quiet atmosphere, as Israelis deal with the ever-present threat from above.
"It's not normal at all," Gal Ben Yishayahu said, pulling her shopping cart behind her.
"It's supposed to be a lot of people at this time.
About an hour before 7.30 arrived at the market, warning sirens had rung out across the country as an afternoon Iranian missile barrage was detected hurtling towards Israel.
The few customers who had been shopping were forced to flee, seeking out public shelters nearby. Many did not return once the nation was given the all clear.
"When there is war, when there are bad things happening, all the people escape the market," said greengrocer Ghanem Sari, one of the few shopkeepers still open.
"They are afraid for themselves. In the market there are people, but when there is an emergency situation the people leave: the market and the market becomes empty immediately.
"It has an effect. We, the owners of the shop lose, the produce gets thrown away, there is no work, no selling of goods."
Around the corner, bar owner Galia Berental summed up the sentiment.
The reason the streets of Tel Aviv are eerily quiet is because the official directive to the population is to stay close to shelters.
Israel's missile detection systems send alerts to mobile apps, with a 10-minute warning of an incoming barrage.
As the missiles rain down on the country, loud warning sirens ring out telling people the threat has arrived and they need to barricade themselves inside shelters.
Many houses built from the early 1990s onwards have private safe rooms, with thick concrete walls and doors designed to shield the occupants.
The ABC bureau in Jerusalem even has such a room.
Other buildings, including hotels, have shared facilities on every floor or in basements.
Older houses and apartment blocks often do not, meaning residents need to rely on public shelters in the streets.
In Ramat Gan, close to Tel Aviv, some have decided it is safer to sleep inside the underground light rail station, which has been opened as a public shelter given the transport service is not running.
Armed with inflatable mattresses and blankets, and power boards to keep their devices charged, dozens of families have moved on to the concourses hoping for a decent night's sleep.
Chaim Bar Or, who operates a bar above the station, said people living in the station are not complaining about the situation or the threat from Iran.
"All of us are soldiers," he said.
"When we need to fight, we know how to fight — we live hard, we fight hard, we party hard.
While these shelter options are available in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, they are not in some other cities.
Last weekend an Iranian missile hit Tamra in northern Israel, with four members of the same family being killed in their home.
The town's population is predominantly Palestinian, and it has no public shelters, despite a population of almost around 35,000.
"The Jewish community that don't have shelters or access to shelters are about, let's say, 14, 15 per cent, while the Arab community is more close to 60 or 70 per cent," architect Alon Cohen-Lifshitz said.
"You can see it in East Jerusalem as well, where there are very few public shelters, I think around 25 or so, for about 400,000 people.
"And when we are talking about the Bedouin communities in the Negev [desert], they don't have any shelters or very few — so it's almost 95 per cent or even more that lack shelters."
Mr Cohen-Lifshitz is a member of the Bimkom organisation, which lobbies government to change planning policies to ensure equity in public services such as shelters.
He said development restrictions in Palestinian communities exacerbated the situation, and the lack of public funding through the national government and local municipalities is not flowing to such projects.
While 7.30 was interviewing Mr Cohen-Lifshitz, warning sirens rang out and we needed to seek shelter in a school.
One angry local resident raised concerns about the lack of air conditioning and disabled access to the shelter.
The impact of the Israel-Iran war has seen houses damaged and destroyed by missiles which have slipped through Israel's sophisticated air defences, including the Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow.
One missile hit a block of flats in northern Tel Aviv on Sunday morning local time, but the shock waves caused significant damage to buildings for hundreds of metres around the site.
The windows of Daniel Bairey's home had been blown out. 7.30 met him as he was cleaning up the mess with his sons.
His family had been sheltering in their safe room when the blast hit the area.
The missile was fired just hours after US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"I've always had problems about Trump himself, but I have to admit that if the Democrats were trying to portray him as someone who was quick on the trigger, and someone who couldn't be trusted, I think he's acting in a very reasonable way," Mr Bairey, an American citizen said.
"It's actually quite reassuring to know that we're not alone.
He added that the concern about attacks against Israel were not a new phenomenon.
"I can only tell you what my cousin in Haifa said. She was born here. She says, 'we've always been under an existential threat, so what's new?'" Mr Bairey said.
"Honestly it's strange to say, but after a while … you get used to it."
Back in the Carmel Market, that phrase — "existential threat" — echoed through the streets.
"There is a really, really old line that we say. Like, 'If we don't have the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] today, tomorrow we're all dead," Tel Aviv resident Guy said.
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