‘Enjoy the fireworks': Cautious optimism on the streets of Tel Aviv

Telegraph

4 hours ago

Alerts blared out on phones across Israel at 7.30am on Sunday and, just a minute or so after the blast doors were pulled tight, deep percussive thuds reverberated through the Tel Aviv bomb shelter.
It was one of the largest salvos of recent days, with at least 40 ballistic missiles fired at the Jewish state from Iran.
All across the country, people were hunkering down, most unaware of the overnight US strikes on Fordow and Iran's other nuclear facilities.
Sleep has been hard enough for most Israelis over the last week, with phones often inundated with missile alerts and news notifications in the dead of night.
The 15 to 20 people in the Tel Aviv hotel shelter sucked in a collective breath with the thud of the impacts but quickly turned to their phones to peruse reports on the night's action.
One by one, smiles spread across sleepy faces with the knowledge that the US had joined Israel in its fight against Iran.
This is a country where people have long believed that 'strength' is all.
'For me, the biggest message this sends is that no one f---s with us,' a young South African-born Israeli told me after the blast doors opened.
Seven kilometres to the north, a ballistic missile had slammed into the densely compacted residential neighbourhood of Ramat Aviv.
Others caused devastation in Ness Ziona, south of Tel Aviv, and the northern city of Haifa. There were no deaths, but more than 100 people were reported injured.
The shockwave at the Tel Aviv housing estate sheared off the outside wall off an old but smart-looking concrete apartment block and destroyed multiple neighbouring houses.
That block alone contained 34 apartments and an adjacent high-rise had its windows blown out from top to bottom on the blast-facing side, making hundreds homeless.
It is thought that at least 20 were injured there. A senior police officer said at the scene that tragedy was averted because everyone got to their safe rooms.
The contents of the apartments – clothes, kitchen implements, children's toys – were strewn across the rubble, as hundreds of residents evacuated with what belongings they could save.
They join nearly 9,000 Israeli civilians who are now homeless because of the missile strikes, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
With the US strike and Iran's retaliation came new emergency lockdown orders from the government, which once again closed most shops and businesses.
Nevertheless, the mood on the streets of the city was upbeat, if muted. People nodded knowingly as Telegraph reporters made their way to the blast scene, with several offering fist bumps.
'It's good, but I'm not sure', said one woman of the US strikes. 'Every day, it's a new adventure here. You don't know what comes next. We just want to live.'
At a local Mizrahi-run cafe, the owner offered your correspondents a complimentary shot of arrack. 'Congratulations', he said. 'Enjoy the fireworks'.
Excitement – good and bad – comes in quick succession in Israel, and no one pretends to know how things will pan out.
Over the past week, there had been real anxiety that Donald Trump would decide against military action and leave Israel hanging. Now the mood has lifted, but the country remains under attack.
Eldad Shavit, a former head of Mossad's research division, warned on Sunday that Iran was 'ideologically driven' and no one should expect it to give up.
It could continue firing missiles at Israel for a 'month or more' based on estimates of its remaining stocks and there was some tentative evidence to suggest it was firing new missiles that were better at evading Israel's celebrated defence systems.
Terrorism could also not be ruled out through its proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which were badly damaged but not entirely degraded, she said.
The war is also costing Israel economically and politically. The government is coming under mounting pressure over the provision of bomb shelters and temporary accommodation for the 9,000 Israelis whose homes have been destroyed in the past week.
Although most of the missiles and drones targeted at Israel have been intercepted, many have got through, causing considerable damage and spreading anxiety and fear.
At least 24 Israelis have been killed in the attacks and the number of wounded now exceeds 900, with thousands of homes destroyed and their occupants displaced.
'After the first deaths, everything changed,' the South African-born Israeli told The Telegraph. 'People saw what a ballistic missile really means. The blast is enormous. From then, everyone is trying to go to a shelter, but there are not enough.'
Some 57 per cent of Israel's homes do not have a 'mamad' or safe room as of last year, according to the Israeli Builders Association. And about a quarter of Israelis do not have access to any hardened shelter.
The shortage – concentrated in poorer areas often dominated by Arab Israelis or new immigrant communities – is leading to overcrowding and growing discontent.
Stories documenting the problem have become a mainstay of local media. Video footage and pictures shared with The Telegraph show a shelter in a down-at-heel district of Tel Aviv so crowded that its blast door could not be closed during an air raid alert on Thursday.
Dozens of other people were left standing outside the entrance to the shelter without access to any hardened protection, the person who provided the images said.
In response to mounting pressure, the Israeli government approved a plan on Friday to renovate 500 public bomb shelters and deploy 1,000 new mobile roadside shelters across the country.
'In light of the security situation, the government approved via a phone vote a plan to accelerate home front defence,' the defence ministry said.
The provision of temporary accommodation for those left homeless by Iran's assault on civilian infrastructure has also become a pressing issue for the Israeli state.
Such is the power of some of Iran's ballistic missiles that they can cause hundreds of homes in Israel's densely packed cities to be destroyed in a single blast.
The Telegraph witnessed one such strike in the city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, on Thursday morning where 746 people from 250 families had to be relocated after their homes were classified as uninhabitable.
Sunday's strike on Ramat Aviv was of a similar magnitude in terms of damage.
As of Friday at 3pm, 30,735 damage claims had been received by the Israel Tax Authority, including 25,040 related to buildings, 2,623 related to vehicles and another 3,006 related to other property.
Most of the displaced are being put up in hotels if they cannot stay with friends or relatives.
Caroline Molcho was relocated temporarily to the Dan Panorama hotel in Tel Aviv after her home was destroyed in a strike last week. The French-Israeli had been in a safe room in her apartment when the missile hit.
'I feel so lucky – it really saved my life, but now we have no idea how long this process will last, how long will I stay here. The future is now really uncertain,' she said.