Fear and apprehension in Israel as war with Hezbollah intensifies

The government declared a 'special situation', allowing the military to issue widespread restrictions on the public in the name of safety

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept rockets launched from Lebanon. AP

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A mixture of fear, apprehension and determination was felt across Israel on Tuesday as Hezbollah ramped up its attacks after the Israeli army launched an intensive air assault on Lebanon, killing more than 500 people, including dozens of women and children.

Videos and photos of the aftermath of Hezbollah rockets showed Israelis in shelters, damaged buildings and cars, and fires raging across fields in different areas, including those rarely targeted such as the key city of Haifa, in central Israel, and even parts of the occupied West Bank.

In Jerusalem, rarely targeted but nonetheless well within the range of many of Hezbollah’s munitions, residents waited on edge for an expansion of strikes.

Sarah Tuttle-Singer, a writer, said that while there was “tension and fear” in the city, Jerusalem still felt like a “bubble” even on Monday evening.

“We go about our daily lives – walking through the markets, grabbing coffee on Jaffa Road – while our brothers and sisters in the north have been under missile fire since October, living in constant fear,” she said.

Israeli officials said the assault aims to eliminate Hezbollah's military capabilities to allow northern Israeli residents to return home after months of displacement, following cross-border fighting that began on October 8, a day after Hamas's attack on southern Israel and the start of Israel's war in Gaza.

The operation also aims to pressure Hezbollah to halt its attacks on Israel, which the group says will continue until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. Negotiations for a truce have so far failed, mainly due to Israel's insistence on occupying a southern corridor along the border with Egypt.

The cross-border fighting has long threatened to escalate into all-out war. That prospect came to be on Monday, after days of major escalations during which Israel assassinated a number of senior Hezbollah commanders, hit a wide range of the group’s military infrastructure and killed scores of Lebanese, both fighters and civilians, in bombardments and apparent attacks on communication devices held by Hezbollah operatives.

Dotan Nave, a resident from Kibbutz Be’eri next to Gaza, an area assaulted by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, said his “heart goes out to the residents of the north because I know what they’re experiencing”, in reference to residents from the south who are largely living elsewhere in Israel, often in government-funded accommodation.

He added that there is fear among southern residents that intense fighting in the north could take the government’s attention away from their plight, particularly in terms of releasing hostages. “We’re worried our whole area will be on hold again until the war in the north is resolved,” he said. “It is scary to think we are surrounded by enemies from north and south now.”

The government declared a “special situation” in Israel, allowing the military to issue widespread orders to the public in the name of safety, which can include closing schools and banning gatherings. The military has not yet issued nationwide orders, but restrictions have been in place in northern regions for a number of days.

Lior Shelef, a reservist in northern Israel on Kibbutz Snir on the frontlines of the battle with Hezbollah, hoped that despite the group's salvoes, Israel’s stepped-up action in recent days could break the deadlock in the north. “Another week like this, and hopefully, we’ll be done with them,” he said.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that the Israeli strikes, the largest aerial attack since the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, have resulted in at least 558 deaths, including 50 children and 49 women, with 1,835 injured. Among those killed were “families whose entire members perished under the rubble”, the state-run National News Agency said

Mr Shelef’s family have been living in government-funded hotel accommodation further from the frontlines for almost a year, alongside more than 60,000 Israelis from northern areas.

Earlier this month, Israel’s government made returning them an official goal of the war, a clear sign the country is focusing its attention away from the Gaza conflict – which has killed more than 41,400 people, wounded more than 95,900 and displaced hundreds of thousands who are now living in schools and makeshift tents under the threat of disease and floods.

“It’s hard, it’s hard to live in hotels,” Mr Nave said. “With every strike that comes like yesterday, it gets even harder because you realise that the war is not going to end soon.”