Millions of Israelis have sought safety in shelters after Iran launched retaliatory attacks on Israeli cities following the death of Iran’s supreme leader.
Leela Fadel, Host:
Following Israel’s surprise attack that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has been firing missiles at Israeli cities. At least 10 people have died in Israel so far. NPR’s Daniel Estrin reports from Israel under Iranian missile fire.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: We’re in the middle of Tel Aviv. We got alerts on our phones that a missile was expected to land in Israel.
(soundbite of air raid sirens)
Estrin: And there are sirens. We go to the public shelter. let’s go We’re only going a couple of floors underground. You can see reinforced concrete. It is a large public shelter – multiple rooms. Lots of people here with their dogs, cats, reading books, eating their morning cereal.
Hila Shapira: We decided to sleep in a shelter tonight.
ESTRIN: Hila Shapira(ph) didn’t want to run in and out of the shelter when the sirens went off.
SHAPIRA: And doing it in the middle of the night when I’m eight months pregnant is too much.
ESTRIN: She and her partner, Ori Iscovici(ph), are mulling over the decision to start a war with Iran.
Ori Iscovici: I am hopeful about it, it will bring them a better future and maybe it will be the beginning of a long-desired change for the people of Iran…
SHAPIRA: All of them (ph)…
ISCOVICI: …gain freedom.
Shapira: Yes.
ISCOVICI: And if it takes – we just sit here a little bit, that’s perfectly fine.
Shapira: If this war helps Iran, I can live with it. But I don’t know. We are really tired.
Estrin: Fatigue is a word you hear a lot in the shelter of Israel. Netta Daphna is a therapist.
NETTA DAFNA: Wars are going on and we’re tired of feeling out of control because it’s not our decision to go to war or end a war.
Estrin: And that war is deadly in Israel. A missile hit a public shelter in a city outside Jerusalem on Sunday. Nine people died. Another missile attack in Tel Aviv killed a caregiver from the Philippines. We visited the scene.
The blast radius is enormous. The missile landed in the middle of the road. A building was burnt down. The outer wall has blown away. You can see destroyed apartments.
Lives near Shai Shore (Ph).
Shay Shore: I want Iranians to be free.
ESTRIN: But he’s concerned that killing Khamenei, Israel’s supreme leader, might not accomplish that.
Shor: We killed their leader, but the leadership in Iran is not completely destroyed, and in a few months, they will be back. Same thing next year – same story, same kind of battle.
(Quarter steps soundbite)
Estrin: Windows were shattered in Saturday’s missile attack. We follow the trail of debris to the ground floor apartment.
Assaf Peretz: In my children’s room, the whole ceiling collapsed.
ESTRIN: Assaf Peretz (ph) is a documentary filmmaker. Like his work, he takes the long view.
Peretz: Maybe in a few months, we’ll be able to look back and understand what really happened. Yeah, Khamenei is dead, so that’s huge, right? But now I am inside my ruins and inside my house and this is where my focus is. It’s a game we don’t really understand.
Estrin: In a few months, he says he’ll ask himself, is it over? Has Israel eliminated all threats against it and is it worth two years of constant war?
Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
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