Israelis raced toward bomb shelters across the country on Saturday, as sirens warned of Iranian missile strikes in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Around 10:30 a.m., the Israeli authorities ordered people to shelter in place across Jerusalem. A series of booms sounded over the city soon afterward, as air defenses sought to repel Iranian missiles. A second alert warning people to take shelter sounded around 11:15 a.m.
The last time Israelis had to take cover like this was in June, when Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities and targeted Iran’s leadership. The United States also joined that war, which lasted 12 days.
The streets of East Jerusalem were largely emptied of traffic on Saturday morning. In shelters across the city, residents were glued to phones. The news of the strikes on Iran had come as a surprise to many, despite warnings from officials here and rising threats from President Trump that such attacks could be imminent.
Dozens of Israelis crowded into a bomb shelter in a public school in downtown Jerusalem. Because Iran’s retaliation had come as many Jews were gathering for services to observe the Sabbath, some were still clad in religious shawls and clutching prayer books. Others wore pajamas, apparently roused by a surprise morning siren.
Students attending school in East Jerusalem were sent home. Many members of ultra-Orthodox communities attended synagogue, defying the warnings.
At the American Colony Hotel, a favorite of international visitors to Jerusalem, a few dozen people sheltered in an underground bunker. Oren Mor, 26, and Liem Katz, 21, a new couple, shared kisses and stared at their phones.
The two Jerusalem residents were both in Israel last June, and they had hoped that war could be avoided this time. They had planned to celebrate the Purim holiday on Saturday, but instead they sat monitoring the news, trapped between feelings of anxiety and sadness.
“We’re desperate, we didn’t want this to happen,” Ms. Katz said, clutching Mr. Mor’s arm.
In the city of Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, an underground parking garage beneath a neighborhood Pilates studio became an unlikely refuge. Strangers hurried downstairs, responding to the sirens. Three elderly women clung to one another for support, gently urging each other not to rush.
“Oh, I did not miss this sound,” one of them said of the alerts on their phones.
As the women settled onto a bench, which they had dragged to a deeper corner of the garage for better protection, one of them carefully balanced a tall stack of plates piled with hamantaschen, a pastry associated with Purim.
Nearby, a young boy kept playing Roblox on his phone with a friend as the boom of an explosion echoed overhead, likely from an interceptor.
Azam Ahmed is international investigative correspondent for The Times. He has reported on Wall Street scandals, the War in Afghanistan and violence and corruption in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
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