When sirens wailed incessantly on the last day of winter, for many in Israel, it was no surprise. After a 12-day war with Iran in June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu solemnly announced "achieving a historic victory" and "eliminating existential threats." But major Western media outlets immediately began publishing articles about the possible resumption of hostilities. In November 2025, The New York Times wrote that "a new outbreak of war between Israel and Iran is only a matter of time." The closer it got to March 2026, the more evident the escalation became. At the end of February, US President Donald Trump stated that the world had 10 days to see if Iran would agree to a deal or if "bad things would happen." By this time, the United States had deployed significant military forces to the Middle East. War appeared more and more frequently, not only in the news but also in everyday conversations. When planning vacations, buying tickets, discussing any plans, the inevitable question was: "If, of course, Iran doesn't start." Exactly two months ago, we met with friends in Tel Aviv, and one of them said: "No, this time, when it all starts, we'll rush to the Egyptian border and fly out." June was difficult for many. It became especially clear then: hiding from ballistic missiles on a stairwell, as during shelling from homemade rockets from Gaza or rare shelling from Yemen, is not an option. The desire to bury oneself deep underground appeared. There were many sirens, and often at night. Residents looked a bit like zombies from exhaustion. This time, the hardest day fell at the beginning of the operation. On Saturday, February 28, when Israel and the US launched the first attack on Iranian territory, Israelis sat almost non-stop in shelters due to retaliatory strikes. That night, they managed to sleep for four hours straight – and that already seemed like luck. From the second day, the situation became noticeably easier, but the danger did not disappear: on March 1, in the city of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem, a rocket strike killed nine people. Over the week, rocket fragments periodically fell in the center of the country – most often without casualties. On Monday, March 9, 6 rocket impact sites were recorded near Tel Aviv: as a result of the shelling, a person on a construction site was killed, and two more men were seriously injured. According to Mako, residents of Tel Aviv and nearby cities spent a total of 5 hours and 30 minutes in shelters during the week. The siren sounded in the city 33 times, and every night residents were woken up between 00:00 and 07:00. The situation in the north of the country is slightly easier – there were 22 sirens in Haifa during the week. No one canceled work, and functioning is necessary. At the same time, educational institutions are closed throughout Israel. The Ministry of Education will discuss the resumption of classes in the calmer areas on March 9. Israeli air defense system intercepts missiles over Jerusalem, March 4, 2026. Photo: Abir Sultan / EPA. Tel Aviv is known as one of the most liberal and hedonistic cities in the country – cafes, bars, parties, the sea. During the war in June, even time stopped here. Now everything feels different. Since March 1, many cafes have opened, albeit with reduced hours, and along with them, the familiar routine has returned, at least a little. There were no usual supermarket hysterics, when shelves of water and canned goods were emptied – perhaps because the first day of the war fell on Shabbat. The war also coincided with Purim – the loudest and brightest Jewish holiday in honor of the salvation of the Jewish people from destruction in Persia during the time of King Ahasuerus. Usually, on this day, the streets are filled with people in costumes, everyone drinks and has fun. This year, the holiday descended underground for the first time: it was celebrated in bomb shelters and underground parking lots. Some even did not cancel their weddings and held them there, in the parking lot. Airspace is closed: since the beginning of the war, tens of thousands of Israelis remained outside the country, and more than 33,000 foreign tourists were inside Israel. Israelis stranded abroad began to be returned home on rare evacuation flights: on the morning of March 9, about 330 residents who found themselves in the UAE since the beginning of the war arrived at Ben Gurion Airport. Everyone experiences war differently and finds themselves in different circumstances. Not everyone has safe rooms in their homes, and running out several times a night with children to a public shelter can be difficult. "Novaya Gazeta Europe" spoke with people who found themselves in different situations during the war. Some were in Israel for the first time during shelling, some were on a hike near the border with Egypt and left the country the same day, some, on the contrary, returned home the hard way, and some decided to sleep in the subway. Become a co-participant of "Novaya Gazeta" Become a co-participant of "Novaya Gazeta", subscribe to the newsletter and receive letters from the editorial office Subscribe Tanda. "The planning horizon narrows to a point" I flew to Tel Aviv to visit friends, and also for a visa run (a short trip to a neighboring country to cross the border and immediately return to reset the legal visa-free stay period. – Ed.) from Egypt. Did I know about the international situation? Yes, and I followed it closely. But I thought Trump would inflate his cheeks longer. On the first day, there was an alarm at eight in the morning. I woke up, put my laptop in my bag, forgot to take my documents. Lack of experience shows. But it turned out that the alarm was a drill. Soon there was another alarm, and this time it was real. There are a few minutes from the warning to the siren. So sleeping undressed is a privilege of another time. When the alarm was turned off, I ran home. As soon as I entered, another alarm. I'm sitting in the shelter, petting local dogs. Alarm off, I ran into the house, managed to make coffee. But, of course, another alarm. On February 28, the interval between turning off the alarm and the new alarm was about 10-15 minutes, with a couple of exceptions. The path to the shelter is already slightly tiresome. But you can't stay home – it has thin walls and a lot of glass. Another alarm. We're already here! Somewhere in the background, not necessarily close, but quite audible "boom-boom-boom". "Friends ask online if I want to go to a safe place. But when the breaks between shellings are 10 minutes, being near a bomb shelter is the safest place! Much safer than the road. Alarm off. It's getting late. I should cook something to eat. It's two minutes to home. I immediately put a pot on. The water is boiling... Alarm. Clearly, you can't just cook food. Even the simplest. Until this moment – from the first real alarm – I was outside the shelter for about an hour, in short bursts of time. It makes you a bit tired. This time the booms are heard closer than before. I'm reading the news. Yes, Tel Aviv was hit by a ballistic missile. Later it will become known that one woman died and twenty people were injured. Ballistic missiles are serious, if they are missed on approach (and there is never a 100% probability), then our shelter will not save you from a direct hit. Safe rooms, public shelters – are about escaping shrapnel. Deep underground bunkers are more likely, and even then, not a guarantee. Then there was a lull. You can sleep. And at 6 am, another alarm. I really want to wash my hair, I decide to do it in stages. Alarm. Okay, I've rinsed off most of the shampoo, I'll dry off in the shelter. War nearby sharply reduces needs to the basics. Water, food, go to the toilet, sleep, wash. The planning horizon narrows to a point, plans are reduced to the absolutely minimal. And this is with a very competent and reasonable organization (in terms of shelters and warnings, not to mention air defense itself) in a state that tries its best to protect its citizens. Completely greenhouse conditions – compared to other wars. Emergency service personnel at the site of the Iranian missile strike on a building in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 28, 2026. Photo: Abir Sultan / EPA. Anna. "I decided that if the war repeats – I will leave" After the summer war with Iran, I immediately decided: if something similar happens again, I will leave. Especially after reports that "the nuclear program is not completely destroyed" and "the goals are not fully achieved." For about three months, starting around the end of November, we heard that a new war with Iran was about to begin, but it never did. In recent months, the tension has been very high, and I tried to time the moment when it would be best for me to leave. On February 27, my friends and I went hiking near Eilat (about a 10-minute drive to the Egyptian border), and while preparing, I packed my documents: my Russian and Israeli passports. I don't know why, no one knew the exact start date of the war, but it was more like "just in case." I had no money or belongings other than hiking gear. It's more than a four-hour drive from Tel Aviv, where I live. We arrived, set up camp, sat by the fire, roasted sausages, and laughed. On February 28, at 8 am, we woke up in tents to an air raid siren, hiding under a rock. With the realization that the war had begun, I understood that I had to leave. There would be no better moment, the sky was already closed, and the Egyptian border was within reach. My friends were very supportive, gave me some cash, some food, and stayed in touch with me until I got there. On the way, I met two tourists from Germany and Austria who were also trying to leave. We teamed up and drove together, it was calmer. We supported each other a lot on the way, I am very grateful that we met. It was anxious, at the border a man told me to hide my Israeli passport and not show it to anyone. That same day, I managed to fly from Sharm El Sheikh to Moscow to my family. I have a lot of different feelings. Shame for leaving, anxiety for those who stayed, and terrible sadness that I have to leave the place where I live, but "most of all, I feel gratitude to myself for this decision, because I chose my psychological health and my safety. I follow the situation every day, I am in touch with friends, I try to support them, but it seems like some of them are even less worried than I am. All this is very sad, painful, and difficult, but I tell my friends in Moscow about it with laughter, apparently, it's a defense mechanism. And after telling the story, I see their faces and realize that it's not very funny. And this brings me back to the reality in which we have to live today. Daria. "You need to be with your family" My mother and I were in Belarus on business. A normal trip, nothing special. The war began on February 28, and our flight on March 1, of course, was canceled. Frankly, the question of whether it was worth returning didn't even cross my mind. We immediately understood that we needed to go home. Because our whole life is in Israel: family, children, loved ones, animals. But that's not all. At some point, you realize that Israel is not just a place where we live. It's a big family. And when the family is in trouble, when war breaks out, you need to be with your family. When there is war, you need to be home. Therefore, the decision to return was instantaneous. The problem was that the airspace was closed, planes were not flying. At first, it seemed impossible to return. But we started looking for any information. We read chats, looked for people, asked acquaintances. And finally, we found a chat where people share information about returning through the land border with Egypt. People shared their experiences and advice, helped a lot, and explained how everything worked. And thanks to this, we returned. It was risky and scary, but we saw no other option. "When we crossed the border and found ourselves in Israel, there was a feeling that is hard to describe in words. Great relief and the feeling that we are finally home. I'll tell you a secret, I even cried with happiness. Because sometimes home is not just a place. It's people. And we knew for sure that in such a situation, you just need to be with your family. Now people write to me and ask to share information about my experience, and I continue to help them just as they helped us. We live on the border with Lebanon, and now the situation here is normal for a war. Sirens, debris. Everything is stable. People take shelter under a bridge during an air raid alarm in the area of Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel, March 2, 2026. Photo: Abir Sultan / EPA. Rina. "With children, it's better to go to sleep in the same place" We are a family with two children living in the center of the country, and we don't have a bomb shelter at home. Therefore, as in June, we decided to spend the night in the public bomb shelter at the school where the children study. It's not the closest shelter to us, but the first time we instinctively ran there. And it turned out that the children know the space very well and feel calm and comfortable there. Therefore, this time we also decided to spend the night at the school. Unlike last time, when the children experienced everything very hard, and my husband and I also didn't know what to expect, now there is a feeling that the situation is more stable, although the hits are strong, and it seems like we are stuck in this state indefinitely. Many people with dogs and young children gather in the shelter. Dogs bark, children cry in the middle of the night, men snore – high activity. But there is a toilet, there is water. We brought our own blankets and pillows. And municipal workers provided soft mattresses that can be laid on the floor. In general, it's quite comfortable and not cold to sleep at night. But not very comfortable in terms of it not being your own home. We feel like we're camping, and every time after a siren, we don't know what world we'll emerge from the shelter into. We wish every home had such protected spaces. And although we recently found out that there is a shelter closer to home, where we could run, I think that going to sleep in the same place, without getting up in the middle of the night, especially with children, is the right thing to do. Pavel. "No need to run anywhere in the subway" I decided to sleep in the subway (this refers to the tram with above-ground and underground sections, whose line runs from Petah Tikva to Bat Yam through Tel Aviv. – Ed.) back in June 2025, during the first Iran war. My house has a good shelter in the basement, where I went down that first night. But after the first fragments of missiles fell, which were clearly audible from this shelter, I started going to the subway; it had just been opened for shelter. I packed my "go-bag" with documents and money, put my cat in a carrier, and went. This time, I immediately decided to sleep there. The city hall provides mattresses. The station where I stay overnight is very clean and not crowded. In the morning, I lay out the mattress, bring a couple of pillows and a blanket, leave the place for the day, and come to sleep at night. Most people do this. The advantage is that if there is a siren at night, there is no need to run anywhere; the disadvantages are obvious – you don't sleep at home. My attitude towards what is happening is quite pessimistic. We are bombing Iran again, which "is about to have nuclear weapons, which we destroyed in June and set them back 30 years." There seems to be no thoughtful plan from either Trump or Bibi (as the Prime Minister of Israel is informally called. – Ed.). It seems that such regimes do not change with air strikes, even strong ones. The assassination of Khamenei showed this – Iran continues to fight. In the end, civilians will die. They already have, both there and here, and the war will stop somewhere "in the middle" – the regime will not change. But I will be glad to be wrong.
