Tension mounts ...as life goes on
Fear, anger and defiance under war’s looming shadow
TENSION stalked Israel’s streets last night as the world awaited its retaliation for Iran’s massive missile attack.
Iran’s defences are on high alert for an expected Israeli revenge strike, amid fears it could spark an all-out war.
Heavily armed offduty Israeli security officers are at the ready and many locals believe Israel should strike immediately, defying western pleas for a de-escalation.
All military leave has been cancelled and Israelis are busy buying produce for the forthcoming Passover holiday – whilst worrying about the onset of war. In Tel Aviv’s huge Hakarmel market, opinion varies from “hit them hard now – Israel is stronger than Iran” to “Netanyahu has to go, we need peace again”. Scholar Rami Reich, 29, a member of the biggest Orthodox Jewish sect Habad, told us: “We need to hit them back very hard and we need to do it right now. “This is the land of Jews and it is the safest of places because God will save us.”
Rami, from the city of Rishon Le Zion, south of Tel Aviv, added he would be wary of helping Palestinian civilians fleeing his country’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, because “they might become terrorists”. He added: “It’s something I will think about. I am not sure.”
While he was the most hawkish of those we spoke to, it is clear Israelis are still reeling from the October 7 attacks, when Hamas killed 1,200 and kidnapped 250.
Since then, Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, many of them children, in retaliation. Student Nadav Kazav, 16, insists he would not hesitate to help a wounded Palestinian civilian.
Still, he looks forward to the day he wears an Israeli Defence Force Uniform and fights for his country.
He said: “I believe Israel is protected and I trust our army, which has many times proved that
these people cannot get rid of us. I will do anything that is asked of me. I understand I could be injured or die for my country and I am happy to do that. I would fight in Gaza.”
They are all talking in anticipation of Israel’s next move, a retaliation against Iran’s first ever direct attack.
Tehran launched 300 missiles and drones last weekend, itself a retaliation for the April 1 Israeli strike on an Iranian consul building in Syria, which killed 13 , including Mohammad Reza Zahedi – a key Iranian military officer.
Two women, Avital Yarkeev, 24, and Oshar Bibes, 38, have come to the market from Ofakim, a community badly hit on October 7.
Oshar tells us: “I cannot talk about it. We lost many. We want all the hostages back. I think it is right that Israel should attack Iran but in a careful way – not the way which is being talked about.
“It should be covert, because we do not want another war. Let’s do this carefully and covertly.”
Nearby sit a Jewish couple, Tikva, 65, whose parents were from Baghdad, and Raymond, originally from Morocco, now refugees from Hezbollah’s missile strikes in the north.
They fled the stricken city of Kiryat Shmona, close to Lebanon, as their neighbours’ homes were obliterated by cross-border rockets.
Having lived in hotels in
Tel Aviv, Raymond is sick of the fighting and says: “There were bombs in our neighbourhood.
“Hezbollah are our neighbours, unfortunately.
“All we want now is peace but Iran wants us gone, and I don’t know what should be done about that.
“I prefer peace to all of this but I will tell you one thing, Benjamin Netanyahu has to go. He is no good.
“We have 600 soldiers dead, 1,500 civilians dead, 3,000 injured and 6,800 homes demolished.”
Asked about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, he said: “They are miserable and suffering enormously.
“It is not their fault. This was not done by them and they are not to blame, it was not them.” Popular stallholder Ovadia, 60, tells us: “The thing is that we have not finished what is happening in Gaza and we are still involved in the north with Hezbollah. “We do not need another war elsewhere because the most important, the most crucial thing in all of this is to get the hostages back.” He knows the family of missing hostages Eden Yerushalmi, 24, and Romi Gonen, 23.
“Her family don’t know what to do. For six months, they have suffered,” he says. “All families have suffered.”