One of the first things an Israeli child learns is how to tell the difference between incoming missiles. Understanding the sounds become second nature: the sharp, splintering crack of a cluster munition, like champagne corks popping in rapid succession, only far louder and more menacing; the boom of an interception overhead, or sometimes no sound at all, meaning it has been taken down far away. Even the timing, or the distinct shriek or wail of the warning sirens can hint at where the attack has come from, whether Lebanon or Iran.
One father, originally from Manchester, recalls a moment the sirens sounded: “I grabbed my girls and ran with them to the shelter. Then it stopped. And the silence came.
“In that silence, I find myself listening for everything – the missile defence system firing up, interceptions, the impact – the sounds I wish I didn’t recognise. You learn what to listen for because it’s all you can do: wait and listen.
“My girls are seven and four. Both have PTSD, like every other child we know. It’s not a cry for help, just a fact here.”
And then there is the sound everyone fears most: the impact of a missile that has evaded the country’s air defences.
In Arad and Dimona, rockets from the arsenal of a wounded Islamic Republic lashing out got through, leaving hundreds injured and scenes of devastation in these cities built out of the desert.
Civilians had been targeted by a regime that craves slaughter. It was a miracle more lives were not lost.
Israel has come under sustained attack for four weeks, night after night. In recent days alone, some 400 missiles have been launched from Iran, according to Israeli military figures, with around 92 per cent intercepted.
That doesn’t include Hezbollah’s pounding of the northern border, meaning Israel is again effectively facing pressure on multiple fronts.
Most troubling, however, is the use of cluster munitions against civilian areas. Unlike conventional weapons, a cluster bomb bursts open mid-air, scattering dozens and sometimes hundreds of smaller submunitions across a wide area. Many fail to detonate on impact, leaving behind lethal remnants that can kill or maim civilians long after the initial strike.
It was a cluster munition that killed the elderly couple Yaron and Ilana Moshe, both aged 70, who did not reach their shelter in Ramat Gan in time. One of the explosive devices is believed to have landed in their apartment through a window.
The use of such weapons by Iran is a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”, according to Amnesty International during the 12-day war last June.
Despite decades of regulation, around half of Israeli homes still do not have a private reinforced safe room. While protected spaces are mandatory under Israeli law, and all new homes built since the early nineties are required to include one, millions continue to rely instead on shared building shelters or public facilities. Night after night, families are forced to calculate distances, listen for sirens, and judge whether they have time to run – or simply take refuge in underground car parks or improvised shelters.
The use of cluster munitions appears designed not only to cause physical damage but also to stretch defences and erode civilian morale. Israelis themselves say these tactics are intended to weaken the public from within. They point to the indiscriminate nature of these weapons, and to the record of the Iranian regime, long accused of suppressing and killing its own population, as evidence that little distinction is made between military and civilian targets.
Even the most sacred religious sites are not off limits as far as the IRGC are concerned: last week a strike came close to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock.
A month into the war, Israelis are feeling the strain, after weeks of sleepless nights broken by repeated alerts, yet there is a defiant fortitude for the vast majority of Israelis who believe they have little choice.
Every family’s children grow up knowing they will one day serve in the army and that, surrounded by hostile forces, there are few alternatives. The anti-war voices and pockets of protest are currently vastly outnumbered.
While the nightly attacks by Iran are only strengthening the determination of the public to see off the enemy, increasingly, everywhere you go, people are speculating about what lies ahead in the wider strategy and its endgame.
Inevitably, talk turns to President Donald Trump, and how his involvement frames the conflict.
Go back to the beginning. Political sources in Jerusalem say the war had been months in the planning. The decisive moment, the JC has learnt, came on February 26 during a phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. That was the Thursday when the final decision was made. Two days later Ayatollah Khamenei lay dead after a massive air strike on central Tehran and Operation Roaring Lion was under way.
How will the war end? Speculation surrounds a possible visit by President Trump to Israel around Independence Day on April 22, to receive the Israel Prize – a timing some interpret as aligning with projections for the conflict’s next phase, or even its conclusion. Trump’s last visit came during the announcement of the Hamas–Israel ceasefire and hostage release deal, in a historic speech at the Knesset.
Recent days have opened up renewed feverish debate over what are Trump’s true intentions as observers struggle to interpret the meaning of his stream of posts and off-the-cuff comments, often contradicting the very last thing he said. But anyone suggesting that Trump is about to blindside Israel with a premature declaration of victory hasn’t been watching a president who is ever unpredictable and can best be relied as an adept practitioner of subterfuge. Never mind the art of the deal: this is the art of misdirection. Just remember all the noisy rhetoric that surrounded the run-up to the launch of this war. A political source says: “In the past he has masterfully misguided America’s enemies who thought they were the ones fooling him. If I was Iran I wouldn’t assume I can get him to accept a deal that won’t include real historic change in the region and the freedom of the Iranian people.”
For now, there is little real daylight between Washington and Jerusalem. The messaging may differ in tone at times, but the strategic alignment remains intact, with no indication that the war will be significantly curtailed immediately. Even should there eventually be an interruption, the future for the curent regime of the Islamic Republic as it stands appears bleak.
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