residents of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv recount the Iranian attack on Israel

Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to the assassination of its allies, the leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.

We managed to reach Yaelle a few minutes after the first missiles appeared in the Israeli sky. Iran launched a missile attack against Israel on the evening of Tuesday 1 october. A response to the deaths of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, the Revolutionary Guards said. They also promise “overwhelming attacks” in the event of a response from Israel.

Warning sirens were activated across the country earlier in the evening and messages were sent to cell phones in some areas, urging residents to seek shelter. “All of a sudden, all the phones rang”testifies Yaelle, resident of the south of Jerusalem, to franceinfo.

“At home, I don’t have a vault but I have a shelter in the basement of my house that I share with my neighbors. So, we stayed in the shelter”says the Israeli. “There started to be very strong explosions, louder and louder and closer and closer”she continues.

“We saw that there were alerts throughout the country. It was really very stressful, very distressing.”

Yaelle, resident of Jerusalem

at franceinfo

The Israeli army said it had intercepted a large number of missiles on Tuesday and allowed the population to leave shelters. The army spokesperson said the Jewish state will retaliate for the attack, specifying that it would respond at a time and place of its choosing. “We imagine that it is not over”adds Yaelle, speaking of “children who are very afraid”.

Judith heard at 7:30 p.m., sirens sounded in Bat Yam, a town near Tel Aviv. “Like at home, I have no place where I can take refuge, the instruction is to go out on the stairs and waitexplains the Israeli. We didn’t even have time to get home because we had alarms one after the other, so we stayed on the stairs.”

“When there is an alert, it’s traumatic” but the worst for Judith is “when there is one after the other”. “My whole body tenses up and then we get scared, it’s traumaticshe confides. I can’t even put words into words, I’m so stunned by the situation. Tomorrow is the Jewish New Year. We don’t know how it’s going to happen. We don’t know what we should do. I hope everything calms down because living in conditions like this, really, is not human.”