Adjusting to War in Israel, Again
Towards the end of last week — the first week of the joint Israeli–U.S. “Operation Roaring Lion/Operation Epic Fury” against Iran — there appeared to be a brief decline in Iranian missile retaliations against Israel.
After the opening salvos of the war on Saturday, Feb. 28, Iran responded with expected force, launching daily ballistic missile barrages at Israel over much of last week, and widening its scope to attack U.S. military assets in the Gulf states. The Israeli Air Force (IAF), in coordination with the U.S. Air Force and Navy, spent most of last week targeting Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles, launch sites, and production facilities. According to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, more than 3,400 strikes have been carried out by the IAF last week alone, dropping more than 7,500 bombs, twice as many as the entire 12-Day War last June. (RELATED: The First Week of Mission: Iran)
By Friday morning of last week, Israelis had the first full night’s rest of the week, uninterrupted by continuous missile attacks. By Saturday, the absence of aerial sirens seemed eerie. Although reports indicate that Iran still possesses around 3,000 ballistic missiles, it seemed too early in the war for the enemy to be slowing down. (RELATED: Shipping Interruption in Persian Gulf Is Yet Another Reminder of the Risks of Offshoring)
This changed after the weekend. On Sunday night, officials in Tehran told the Iranian Fars News Agency, “the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC will intensify offensive operations starting tonight, including a 100 percent increase in the use of heavy and strategic missiles, effectively doubling their deployment.” The next day, Majid Mousavi, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, stated that “From now on, no missile with a warhead weighing less than one ton will be launched. The intensity of missile barrages will increase.”
Renewed attacks against Israel began late on Sunday night and carried into Monday morning. Seven missile barrages were fired at central and northern Israel from Iran throughout the early hours of Monday morning, many of which included cluster warheads that hit multiple locations in central Israel, killing one, injuring several others, and leaving suburban neighborhoods outside of Tel Aviv pockmarked with craters and littered with debris.
The combination of Iran’s cluster and heavy tonnage warheads presents the greatest threat to the Israeli home front. Cluster warheads are almost impossible to detect on radar, and the cluster bombs remain highly effective even after the missile body is intercepted by Israel’s advanced air defense systems. Likewise, heavy tonnage warheads proved last June to have the capability to penetrate deep into residential buildings, making in-home bomb shelters ineffective.
Hezbollah — which joined the war effort last week on behalf of the Iranian regime — also fired multiple drones and scores of rockets into northern Israel over Sunday night. By late Monday morning, long-range rockets from Lebanon had reached the center near Tel Aviv.
With Hezbollah now in the game, alert times for Israeli citizens have become crucial, especially in the Galilee and Haifa districts. The Home Front Command’s advanced early alert system sends messages to cell phones upon the detection of every missile launched from Iran. This gives about a 12-minute warning to find shelter — the time it takes the missiles to travel just under 1,000 miles to enter Israeli airspace. Aerial sirens are later triggered if the threat is imminent to a localized area. Nearly 80 percent of all attacks, from Iran and Hezbollah, come in the middle of the night, lately with multiple barrages between midnight and 4 AM. A popular meme last June was a picture of Moses with outstretched arms, as if approaching Pharaoh, and a speech bubble that said: “Let my people sleep.”
Rocket attacks from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, however, come with no early warning. The seconds it takes for a Hezbollah rocket to reach the upper Galilee or Haifa means that sirens are triggered almost immediately, leaving groggy-headed sleepwalkers fumbling to throw on clothes or slip on sneakers as they head for cover in the middle of the night. It’s no wonder that many injuries occur while rushing to find shelter.
Israelis are nonetheless making the best of the situation, having rehearsed much of this last June. The Jewish holiday of Purim took a more meaningful turn last week as, once again — just as in the time of Queen Esther — the Jewish people are under attack from foes seeking to annihilate them. Purim costume parties were held in bomb shelters as a testament to the perseverance to keep tradition alive.
Next to the menus and cash registers are signs with walking directions to the nearest shelter.
Makeshift coffee bars and snack stands have emerged in the Tel Aviv underground tram stations, which double as public shelters during times of war. As expected from a hi-tech start-up nation, new dating apps have been created with QR codes placed in many of Tel Aviv’s public bomb shelters, so you can scan and see who else is single and available in your bomb shelter.
In the northern city of Haifa, home to two major universities, coffee shops are thriving as hordes of off-campus students and faculty seek new workspaces now that campuses are closed. Next to the menus and cash registers are signs with walking directions to the nearest shelter. When the national alert systems warn of incoming missiles or the local sirens go off, everyone scatters like mice to their holes to wait out the danger, and then resumes the day.
The skies over Haifa are filled with a consistent roar of jet engines as IAF fighter jets have been carrying out near round-the-clock strikes on Hezbollah positions 20 to 70 miles away in southern Lebanon and Beirut. Over 100 strikes were carried out over the weekend alone as the IAF pushed into Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, targeting IRGC, Hezbollah, and Quds Force leaders and operatives. The Israeli Navy on Sunday launched a precision strike on a hotel in Dahiyeh, where IRGC Quds Force officers met to liaise between officials in Tehran and Hezbollah’s top command.
The activation of Hezbollah will most likely prompt Tehran’s other proxy terrorist group in Yemen, the Houthis, to eventually join the fight. The Israeli Channel 14 News over the weekend reported that “preparations and movements” have been detected at several of the Houthis’ missile launch sites in Yemen. The situation is being monitored closely by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) for a possible coordinated barrage from Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen.
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