In Tel Aviv, after Iran's retaliation, residents hope for decisive blow to nuclear threat
Irving Kaplan, 92, walked slowly as he left the retirement home. The blast from the Iranian missile, which struck on Sunday morning just a few dozen meters away near Tel Aviv University, in the city's north, caused major damage to the building. Windows shattered, rooms on several floors were ravaged, but the structure remained intact. The alert, issued at 7:30 am – 15 minutes before impact – allowed residents to reach the shelters, and the human toll remained moderate, with around 20 people suffering minor injuries in the neighborhood.
"America did a good thing. Iran is a poison for the world," said the elderly man, who made it down from his fourth-floor room in time, praising the strikes carried out by American bombers on Saturday night into Sunday on Iran's nuclear sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. His son Yeremi, age 63, a musician, described the widely shared feeling – even after Iran's retaliation – of the necessity of attacking Iran: "We saw on October 7 that the Iranians do what they say. They sent Hamas, they sent Hezbollah and they were building a nuclear bomb. They don't want us here. They want to devour us. We must defend ourselves."
Tel Aviv once again awoke to the sound of missile alerts on Sunday morning. It was the 24 th alert in the city of four million people since Israel launched its war against Iran, its nuclear program, and the ayatollahs' regime. Residents felt they were living through particularly grave moments. In the shelters, where millions of Israelis had taken refuge, there was anxious anticipation over the scale of Iran's retaliation. The first salvo came a few hours after the American B-2 bombers' airstrikes: Iran launched more than 20 missiles, about 10 of which were not destroyed before impact by the air force and missile defense systems.
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