Inserts:
00:03 Report / Tania Krämer
00:26 Yvonne Tal / Tel Aviv resident
01:18 Yvonne Tal / Tel Aviv resident
04:53 Alon-Lee Green / Founder of Standing Together

TEXT:
It’s an uneasy time in Tel Aviv. Especially as night approaches. Yvonne Tal, who works in a nearby music venue, almost constantly checks her phone ((since Israel and the US attacked Iran)). 

At any moment, a missile alert could sound. She doesn’t have a safe room or shelter at home and needs to get to a public shelter. Every minute counts.  

SOT Yvonne Tal, Tel Aviv resident, EN
“I know I have 77 steps in the stairs that I need to go down and up, and sometimes you go down, and then you will be released from the shelter, and you go back, and then you have another alarm and you need to go down. And it’s like you are tired and you are like, you are not yourself, you are not focused.”

It's week 4 in this war against Iran. And although she feels tired, she is among the majority of Israelis who believe that the war with Iran is necessary. 
For years, the Iranian regime has threatened to destroy Israel. Following the US-Israeli attack on Iran, Prime minister, Benjamin – Bibi – Netanyahu laid out Israel's aims. These include regime change, the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program and its ballistic missile stock.

SOT Yvonne Tal, Tel Aviv resident, EN
“I feel as long as Trump is there in the situation and Bibi and it’s like I think it is the needed action. And this is why like I feel that the civilians are very patient about the situation.”

And they need to be patient. Repeatedly rushing to the nearest bomb shelter  - like this railway station - has become the "new normal". 

An estimated 470 missiles – among them cluster bombs - have been fired from Iran into Israel so far, with additional missile and drone barrages from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Depending on where the missiles come from, people have less than 10 minutes to reach a shelter.

LEAVE SIREN ON as ATMO

SOT Yvonne Tal, resident Tel Aviv, EN 
“My heartbeat is 200. And I meet friends and neighbors – and you felt it also, when the alarm starts, how everybody needs to go quickly inside. It’s not a game.”

Some people without a safe room at home opt to stay here overnight. 

SOT Angel, resident Tel Aviv
“I’m here in my bathrobe every night. My PJ’s and my cat. I’m not prepared for that. So you just wake up and do the routine. // I hope it will be worth it. It’s not like you have a choice.”

And this is what people are afraid of. The site of a heavy hit in a residential neighborhood in the heart of Tel Aviv. 

While many missiles are intercepted, the protection shield is not hermetic. 

No one was killed here, but there’s widespread damage and the sense of safety shaken. 

SOT VOX Natasha Kaplan-Marans, EN
“It doesn't actually feel like it's getting better, you know,it just feels like every day there's something now, and obviously this is close to home. You know, it's my dog walking way. And I just hope it ends soon. I don't know, it just seems a little chaotic still. And a bit like quarantine and war together combined. Because, you know, workplaces aren't really open and there are no schools obviously for little children.”

Many here say that they support the government’s actions. The outcome of the war, however, becomes less clear with each passing week.  

SOT VOX Batsheva Fishman, EN
“For me, like a citizen, I don't know. I'm not in the government. I don't know exactly what they are deciding. And they didn't tell the people in Israel what they do. So all the time you are you don't know what will be tomorrow.

SOT VOX Irit, EN
“The best outcome is to solve the problem once and for forever. That's it. That they will never start again. They will not have weapons against us and missiles to throw on us. If it will take an agreement, then okay. If not, it should continue till the problem is solved.”

NEW GRAPHIK, source Israel Democracy Institute 

Opinion polls show that a large majority of the Jewish Israeli public still rallies around the flag, although support is slightly dropping. 

About 78 percent of Jewish Israelis support the continuation of the Israeli-US war on Iran – according to a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. Among the Palestinian-Israeli minority, only 19 percent support this. 

But there are also other voices, albeit in the minority. Every Saturday, some people demonstrate against the war. The homefront authority limits the size of gatherings.  
One of the organizers is Alon-Lee Green from Standing Together, a nation-wide Jewish-Arab movement.

SOT Alon-Lee Green, founder/co-director, Standing Together, EN 

“I do think there is an alternative. And it starts with understanding that these promises of total victory are not achievable. We had a total victory with Hezbollah, and a year and a half after we're in war with them again. We had total victory with Iran, eight months after again with Hamas. How many times we won and they still there. Maybe it's time to change the perception and to understand that we need to live in this neighborhood that we live in with long term agreements, with diplomacy, with, um, with the ability to not fight for our lives again and again and all the time. /// 

Back from the railway station, Yvonne prepares for another restless night – not sure what the next day will hold and what the war will achieve.