In familiar ritual, Israelis race back and forth to shelters to escape Iranian missile barrages

People take shelter in an underground parking garage as air raid sirens warn of incoming missiles strike by Iran, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

TEL AVIV, Israel — Constant missile salvos from Iran sent people in central Israel in and out of shelters throughout the day on Saturday after the U.S. and Israel launched a major attack on Iran.

Many apartments in poorer areas are not equipped with adequate shelters. In Jaffa, a mixed Arab-Jewish neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, more than 100 people, including Muslim families with young children, religious Jews from a nearby seminary and at least a dozen dogs crammed into the public shelter underneath a park.

Some groups splayed out on mattresses they brought into the shelter and played cards, others shared snacks, while observant Muslims were fasting for the holy month of Ramadan. Many stared at their phones, swiping through updates as siren after siren sounded in the neighbourhood. As the sun set, Muslims were forced to have their iftar meal, breaking the daily fast at sundown, in bomb shelters.

“Of course we expected it, even though we didn’t want it to happen,” said Idit Cohen, who lives near the park. She noted, however, that it was one of the times when you could see the community come together.

Her son received an emergency summons for reserve military duty, and a stranger in the shelter volunteered to drive him to the base, even though he was a religious Jew who generally does not drive on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.

“I want it to end as soon as possible, it’s a nightmare, people are more and more frustrated and tired,” Cohen said. “We see families with babies and young kids here, but there are elderly people that aren’t able to keep running here all day.”

For the past two and a half years, Israelis have become familiar with the routine after fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthi rebels in Yemen and a 12-day war last June against Iran.

The country’s layered system of air-raid sirens, bomb shelters and missile defences has blunted the toll of attacks, but not entirely. Israel’s rescue service, Magen David Adom, said late Saturday that a woman in the Tel Aviv area died after being injured in an Iranian strike. It said it had treated at least 90 people with light injuries across Israel, as well as one man who was seriously injured.

Igor Libenson, a construction worker and father of two sons, said his family was mostly tired from the constant moving back and forth. “The kids aren’t scared, we were here also in June in the same situation,” said Libenson, whose sons are four and seven years old.

Some of the religious Jews sang psalms with their arms slung around each others’ shoulders.

“We look at this in the long term. We suffer today but we do hope that it will resolve the problems of tomorrow,” said Maya Tutian, a resident of Tel Aviv, who was in a public shelter in the northern part of the city. ”The Iranian regime is not just a threat of us, people who live here in Tel Aviv, but for the entire world.”

During last year’s war with Iran, some people without access to shelters in their homes took to sleeping in Tel Aviv’s underground light rail stations and underground mall parking lots.

While new buildings in Israel are required to have reinforced safe rooms meant to withstand rockets, Iran is firing much stronger ballistic missiles. And shelter access is severely lacking in poorer neighbourhoods and towns, especially in Arab areas and in rural parts of the country.

More than two thirds of Israel’s Bedouin minority have no access to shelters, according to the Negev Coexistence Forum, a local advocacy group. Last summer, many Bedouin families resorted to building DIY shelters out of available material: buried steel containers, buried trucks, repurposed construction debris.

Iran began striking shortly after a joint attack by Israel and the U.S. early Saturday. By nightfall, the Israeli army said dozens of missiles had been launched at Israel.

Israeli police and emergency services said several people were lightly wounded in missile strikes, while the military intercepted many of the incoming missiles.

Israel issued a nationwide warning and put the country on high alert, canceling school and most gatherings across the country.

Melanie Lidman And Ami Bentov, The Associated Press