News you can use: Five practical points about the Israel-Iran war
As Israel is being hit by Iranian missiles and the toll of deaths and injuries rises, life has mostly come to a standstill. Here’s what you should know
In the early hours of Friday, Israel started to carry out preemptive strikes against Iran and its nuclear program.
Within hours, Iran began retaliating with barrages of missiles and drones.
Over the past four days, Israel has been hit multiple times and seen its casualty toll rising, and life has mostly come to a standstill to ensure the highest protection for its population. Here are five key questions and answers.
1. How is life in Israel affected by the war?
Since 3 a.m. on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command has issued nationwide emergency guidelines. All gatherings, whether indoors or outdoors, have been prohibited. Workplaces and businesses are closed, except for essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies.
Educational institutions, including daycare, schools and universities, and notably special education institutions, are either closed or operating remotely. Matriculation exams scheduled for this week have been postponed.
Sporadically but repeatedly, Israelis were instructed to stay near bomb shelters, ready to seek cover at a moment’s notice.
The Home Front Command’s initial guidelines, in place until Saturday at 8 p.m., were extended through Sunday evening, and then again until Tuesday evening. A further assessment is expected afterward.
2. How are Israelis alerted about incoming attacks?
Drones launched from Iran can take hours to reach Israel, while ballistic missiles typically arrive within about 10 minutes. Thanks to its advanced detection capabilities, the Home Front Command has been able to issue alerts for incoming threats several minutes in advance through its smartphone app, available for all devices.
On Saturday, the Home Front Command announced it would begin sending alerts directly to Israelis’ phones 15 to 30 minutes ahead of potential ballistic missile launches based on its ability to detect preparation activities in Iran.
The warnings culminate in sirens that sound approximately 90 seconds before impact.
Both types of alerts are activated only in regions assessed to be at risk.
3. Is it possible to travel to or from Israel?
Israel’s airspace has been closed for landings and takeoffs at Ben Gurion Airport since Friday. It will likely remain so for the foreseeable future as Israel and Iran trade air and missile strikes.
Any announcement of its reopening will give six hours’ advance notice, the Israel Airport Authority said in a statement on Sunday.
El Al announced that all flights were canceled through June 17 and dozens more through June 23.
Land border crossings to Jordan and Sinai are open for business and passenger traffic, including the Taba Crossing with Egypt and the Rabin and Jordan River Crossings with Jordan (while the Allenby Crossing remains open for Palestinians).
However, on Sunday, the National Security Council warned Israelis not to try to reach Israel by land through Jordan or Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, citing a high risk of danger to Israelis in the neighboring countries.
4. Are Iran’s proxies in the region joining the fight?
The Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen launched a missile on Friday, hitting a Palestinian town in the West Bank and wounding several people.
The group also claimed to have launched an additional two ballistic missiles against Tel Aviv on Sunday morning. Still, military officials told The Times of Israel that the IDF was unaware of any ballistic missile fire from Yemen in the previous 24 hours.
Saturday evening saw two rockets launched from the southern Gaza Strip at southern Israel. The rockets hit open areas, the IDF said, with no injuries caused.
On Sunday, the secretary general of the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades — one of the largest pro-Iranian militias in Iraq — asserted that “Iran does not need military support from anyone to deter the Zionist entity. It has sufficient personnel and capabilities for that.”
In an interview with an Iraqi news outlet, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi says the militia is monitoring the situation.
Regarding Hezbollah, an official told Reuters Friday that the Iranian proxy group based in Lebanon would not unilaterally launch an attack on Israel in support of Tehran.
“Hezbollah will not initiate its own attack on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s strikes,” the official said.
According to the Saudi news outlet al-Arabiya, Lebanon’s government also informed the Hezbollah terror group that it would not tolerate the Iranian proxy joining in Tehran’s response against Israel.
At one point, Hezbollah was believed to have some 150,000 rockets and missiles ready to be used against Israel.
Seeking to aid its ally Hamas in the aftermath of the Gaza terrorist group’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah began launching rockets across the border on October 8, 2023.
That drew Israeli airstrikes and shelling, and the exchanges escalated into full-scale war in September 2024. Israel inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah before a US-negotiated ceasefire halted that conflict last November.
5. How long will Iran continue to strike Israel?
Nobody knows, but further Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel are expected IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press conference on Sunday.
“Challenging days are ahead. There will be more launches and impacts in the coming days,” Defrin says.
He also says that the Israeli Air Force is “not stopping striking for a moment.”
Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman, Sharon Wrobel, Nava Freiberg, Nurit Yohanan, and agencies contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.