Life Under Iran’s Rockets

“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said on Monday afternoon, three days into a new war with the Islamic Republic.

The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and in Jerusalem, the sky was clear as it turned from blue to red to black. As Israelis know all too well, there is a routine when ballistic missiles are launched toward them. There is the familiar, stomach-churning wave of tension as 10 million people wait to see which areas of the country are under fire.

Like all of my countrymen, I was waiting. Most people in Israel have spent the first days of the Iran war inside. Schools are closed. Festivities for the Purim holiday on Tuesday are mostly cancelled. Very few stores are open, and Israel’s Home Front Command guidelines instruct people to remain near bomb shelters and not gather in groups.

The Israeli Red Alert system is multiphased. First, everyone in the country receives a warning on our phones that missiles have been launched. Minutes later, if you’re unlucky enough to be close to the target, sirens blare around you signifying that the missiles are about to arrive. You have seconds to get to a shelter. Then, you hope they’re intercepted. If you’re caught outside your house during an alert, the question is whether to get back in your car and find the nearest public bomb shelter or wait and see where the rocket hits—taking cover by the side of the road.

On the streets of Jerusalem near where I live, as I left my house to get groceries on Monday night, a woman was walking her dog; it looked like a shih tzu and was wearing a small red-and-white checkered sweater. The dog provided a moment of cheerful relief from the incoming missiles. Down the street, a young man was walking home cradling seven pizza boxes. He must have been preparing for some kind of party.

Another young man, with a short growth of dark facial hair, walked past, an M4 rifle slung across his back. Over the weekend, Israel prepared to call up 100,000 reservists as the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel. This reopened a new front in the war, and it would mean more reservists, like the young man with the rifle, might be heading to the north. “We are not only operating defensively—we are now going on the offensive as well,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Monday morning. The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

The young man with the pizzas passed the woman with the dog, and I went to my car to make the journey to the supermarket. In the distance, far up in the darkening sky, a white trail of smoke appeared as an air defense missile streaked overhead. It made no discernible sound; only its trail of smoke, accentuated by the dusk colors, indicated the war overhead.

To the west of me, another missile trail appeared. There were no new alerts, no blaring sirens. The Iranian missiles that were now being hunted were many miles away, heading toward an area of central Israel. Israel’s Red Alert system has been fine-tuned over the last two decades, so that only areas believed to be directly under threat will be warned. This saves people from rushing back and forth to shelters. But ballistic missiles are large: dozens of feet in length and weighing multiple tons, they spread debris over a large area when they are intercepted. Therefore, each missile fired by Iran or its Iranian proxies forces millions of people to shelters in Israel.

As Israel’s war with Iran entered its third day on Monday, the Israeli Air Force had already achieved air superiority over much of Iran. Nevertheless, the Iranian threat to Israel has continued. During the first evening of the war, a missile struck a civilian neighborhood in central Tel Aviv. A building was blown apart, outer walls ripped open and flayed. One person was killed and several city blocks around the site were damaged, with numerous homes destroyed.

I went to the site about 12 hours after the attack. Hundreds of Israeli responders from various organizations and branches of the military and emergency services were present. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has become even more proficient at responding to mass casualty events and unprecedented levels of attacks from huge ballistic missiles. Weeks before the new war on Iran, the IDF Search and Rescue Brigade, which uses specialized equipment and technology to search through destruction, had completed new training to prepare for war. Now the units were putting the training into practice.

The Tel Aviv attack was a grim preview of more to come. Around 50 miles to the southeast of that apartment lies the city of Beit Shemesh. Nestled at the foot of the hills that form a buffer between Israel’s coastal plain and the hill country, it is a diverse city with many Orthodox Jews and immigrants from the U.S. On Sunday, a ballistic missile slammed into a civilian neighborhood that sits on the spur of a low hill. Nine people were killed, a bomb shelter laid to waste, surrounding buildings damaged, and cars burned.

In the Orthodox neighborhoods of Beit Shemesh, many of the children were preparing for Purim, which would begin the next night. Purim is a joyous holiday, when the Jewish people celebrate victory over a Persian dictator by drinking and wearing costumes. The story feels more apt than usual this year.

Young children were dressed in festive hats, some of the young boys wearing white beards, the girls in dresses. Even though they were under attack, they wanted to go on living their daily lives as much as possible. In this case, it meant staying close to shelters, but letting the children try to have some paired-down festivities.

Israelis have become used to war over the years. Like with every round of fighting, there is determination and resilience, but also resignation. Resignation to another ruined holiday, another night close to the shelters, another day making sure your phone has enough charge to get the Red Alerts.

When I finally made it to the supermarket on Monday, only a handful of people were present. No one was speaking. Israel is usually a loud, boisterous society. Jerusalem, a mixed city with Arabs and Jews, always tends to be even louder than other cities. People constantly use car horns, regardless of need. There is shouting and people are rambunctious.

Israelis have faced a grueling battle for years. The days of the war with Iran are one more campaign in that long war for survival and acceptance. Israel’s IDF calls the war Roaring Lion, and the U.S. calls it Epic Fury. However, on the streets of Israel, the people are quiet and the mood is tense.

Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an analyst for The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024). He is based in Jerusalem.