On Sunday morning — usually a busy working day — Jerusalem was eerily quiet, except for the sound of alarms and air-raid sirens, which have been going off frequently since around 6am across Israel.
The sirens were also heard in parts of the occupied West Bank.
Phone messages alerted people that a missile launch was detected from Iran, and that they had to seek shelter. Schools across the country remained closed, and only essential workplaces were permitted to operate.
“We can only hope for the best now; everything seems unpredictable. At the moment, we can only wait,” said resident Yoav, who had come to the city center in West Jerusalem to feed stray cats — just like every other day.
He said that he was staying close to a public shelter because it was impossible to predict when the next alarm would sound.
The mood was mixed between cautious optimism and support for the attacks on Iran, and uncertainty about what comes next.
In a hotel in occupied East Jerusalem, where public shelters are rare, tourists were taking cover in the basement.
“We are on a pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and we were on our way to Jerusalem when the first alerts happened. Since then, we have been moving between our rooms and the shelter here,” said Tati, a young woman from Brazil who made the trip with her parents.
She said the group was supposed to travel on to Dubai. “But we hear it’s not much better there.”
With Israel’s airspace and main airport closed, there is no way to leave the country for the time being.
“There is not much we can do … all we can do is pray,” Tati said.
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