Once again, Israel and Palestine woke up to war on Saturday morning, with phones blaring emergency alerts across cities as Israeli jets, alongside US forces in the region, launched a much-anticipated and feared war against Iran.
It is a familiar drill, more than two years after the October 7 attacks plunged the region into chaos. But even after the Gaza war, and what feels like countless battles with Iran and militant groups across the Middle East since, Saturday was shocking.
“Yes, we are used to problems, but I was still surprised,” Hania, a Palestinian from Jerusalem, told The National.
Hania, like many in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, had her impression of the weeks ahead shattered by the continuing barrages throughout the morning. “I’ve been suffering with this war since the 1970s, and today is just another reminder that I have never felt the calm peace of freedom,” she added.
Shortly after the interview, deafening whooshes, cracks and booms echoed across the city, a cacophony of interceptions, falling shrapnel and, quite possibly, impacts, although so far only one injury has been reported as a direct result of a strike in Israel. The authorities limit how much the media can publish about hits, fearing security fallout.
Like all residents of Jerusalem, Hania had been experiencing a gradual return to normality in recent months. A frequent visitor to the Old City, she had been noticing larger crowds of foreign tourists and pilgrims, particularly during Ramadan.
After the second Friday prayers took place calmly this week, albeit under heavy Israeli restrictions, the trajectory still seemed in the right direction, despite increasingly bellicose rhetoric from the US and Israel directed towards the regime in Iran.
Saturday morning was an unambiguous reminder of how fragile the situation really was. Teeming streets around Jaffa Gate in the Old City suddenly emptied, with police donning full protective gear, setting up metal barriers to restrict access and knocking on shop windows, ordering businesses, except essential ones, to close.
A supermarket in the Christian Quarter brought in extra staff as crowds entered to buy non-perishable food and hygiene items. The mood was stoic, but the sight of elderly women laden with bags of toilet paper and canned food was a clear sign that even the most resilient Jerusalemites were preparing for very tough times.
Apart from locals, the only other people around were security forces and a few lost-looking tourists, who are now being urged by their governments to leave as quickly as possible. One dishevelled American man was going from person to person saying the missiles were a sign of the Messiah’s return, perhaps a victim of the famous Jerusalem syndrome, where foreign visitors start to suffer religious delusions on visiting the holy city.
Further afield, Israeli hospitals were transferring patients into underground facilities, a sign that authorities are preparing for a critical scenario. Schools and businesses are shut, as is the airspace. Some foreign visitors had cut their trips short in recent days, particularly after the US embassy authorised some staff and their families to leave
But it also feels different for a less tangible reason, one that has a number of Israelis worried, even in a state that so often unites comprehensively around its armed forces in times of war.
They are picking up on the fact that little more than half a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump hailed a decisive victory against Iran that they said would bring about a new era of stability in the region.
As the interceptions crashed overhead, those claims seemed absurd. Israel is at war again and lives, once again, are on hold.
Naama Lazimi, a Knesset member for left-wing party The Democrats, wrote on X: “How, less than a year after the war with Iran, when we were told that every threat to Israel had been removed, and the war was described as a total victory − how are we back at war again without anybody in the political echelon saying a word to us about this contradiction?"
