Star Metro - United behind Iran war effort, Israelis express relief at US bombing

Despite daily nerve-shredding trips to bomb shelters and growing damage around the country, Israelis appeared united behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's move to attack Iran on June 13.

Trump's decision to authorise overnight bombing raids on Iran's nuclear facilities has provided further reassurance after more than a week of sorties by the Israeli air force.

"The war with Iran was inevitable. You knew it would happen sooner or later," Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software engineer, told AFP in central Jerusalem on Sunday.

"I hope that it will shorten the war, because otherwise Israel by itself would not stop until they get that Fordo place bombed," he explained, referring to the deeply buried Iranian nuclear site targeted by heavy US bombers overnight.

Israelis have hunkered down for the last 10 days, with businesses closed, schools shuttered and people urged to stay home.

Few have slept a full uninterrupted night since the conflict erupted due to the screeching missile warnings that flash up on mobile phones at all times of day.

"We woke up to a Sunday morning of alarms and then we saw that the US attacked," David, a 43-year-old Jerusalem resident, told AFP. "We're all happy that the US is lending a hand, it has always been lending a hand."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told the BBC on Sunday that "now is an opportunity to come to a dialogue of peace, also a dialogue of peace between all nations in the region, including Israelis and Palestinians".

- 'God is with us' -

Israel's sophisticated air defences have kept Israeli towns and cities relatively safe, shooting down hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones that would otherwise have caused widespread devastation.

Dozens have slipped through, however, with three more impacts reported on Sunday morning in the northern port of Haifa and around the coastal hub of Tel Aviv.

At least 50 strikes have been acknowledged nationwide and 25 people have died, according to official figures.

When a missile blasted her modern apartment block on Thursday in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, resident Renana lamented to AFP that "it will take a long time until this building recovers."

But she showed no rancour towards Netanyahu who has deployed Israeli forces in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and now Iran since the attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas in October 2023.

"The truth is that God is with us and the government should go on with whatever they're doing, which is exactly what should have been done a long time ago," Renana, who did not give her surname, told AFP.

- 'Sharp contrast' -

Israel's usually divided political scene has also lined up behind the attack on Iran, a country generations of Israelis have grown up fearing as a threat to their existence.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed last week.

A survey carried out by the Israel Democracy Institute in the days immediately after Israel's first strikes on June 13 found that 70 percent of Israelis supported the war, although the results revealed a major divide.

Among Jewish Israelis, there was 82 percent support, while only 35 percent of respondents from Israel's Arab minority, who mostly identify as Palestinian, were in favour.

Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli pollster and political analyst, told AFP that Israelis were much more united behind the Iran campaign than the grinding conflict in Gaza which many saw as a "dirty war".

Netanyahu has been criticised for failing to secure the return of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas and accused of prolonging the war for domestic political purposes.

He is also subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza where nearly 56,000 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

"There's a very sharp contrast between how Israelis view the war in Gaza and how they view this war with Iran," Scheindlin said.

She cautioned, however, that sentiment could change if it turns into a long conflict.

A.Hill--SMC