The Israeli home front was put on high alert on Friday morning after the Israel Defense Forces launched a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear and military facilities, with hospitals, emergency services and other non-governmental organizations readying for Iranian retaliatory attacks. 

The first of these Iranian responses came on Friday morning, as roughly 100 drones and multiple ballistic missiles were fired at Israel, though all appear to have been intercepted or otherwise missed their mark. 

The IDF Home Front Command ordered all educational activities closed and put a ban on gatherings and work places except for essential services, hospitals began moving patients to underground facilities, the Education Ministry opened an emotional support hotline and the country’s chief rabbis directed synagogues to refrain from hosting services on Shabbat in case of attack, among other things. 

“Unfortunately, this is not new to us,” Steve Walz, a spokesperson for the Sheba Medical Center, outside of Tel Aviv, told eJewishPhilanthropy, noting that the underground facilities have been used before during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the early days of the Gaza war. “We are moving parts of the hospital underground, including patients in oncology, the maternity ward and the neonatal department. By the afternoon, big parts of the hospital will be underground.”

Yet BESA Center senior researcher Shay Attias, who has developed and teaches the “Simulations in Crisis Management” course at Bar-Ilan University’s School of Communication and department of political studies, told eJP that despite the significant preparations by Israeli emergency services, feelings of confusion and uncertainty were rampant among the Israeli public. This started with air raid sirens that sounded throughout the country at roughly 3 a.m. — normally the sign of an imminent attack, but which in this case was meant to signify that civilians should be aware of the possibility of an attack. 

While the “heavy emergency infrastructure system” is already prepared for emergency situations, clear information does not trickle down to Israeli citizens, he said.

“This is the really very confusing outcome of having this unbelievable, remarkable  ability to protect [civilians],” said Attias. “Every municipality sends its own guidelines; the IDF spokesman explained another set of guidelines, but still there are a lot of gaps and lots of vacuums. People ask, ‘Should I go buy groceries?’”

Indeed, supermarkets were especially crowded, even more than usual for a Friday morning, as people hurried to get food and other provisions for the weekend as well as for a possibly longer protracted time, as the Home Front Command warned of possible difficult days ahead. Attias noted that while he was driving to be with his mother who was alone in her home, he observed people along the streets carrying big grocery bags of food and toilet paper.

“Israel has the ‘advantage’ of having been in war since its existence, hospitals are getting prepared, municipalities become the new public spokesmen for the people, but no one in the government is coming to explain to the people what they should expect other than what they are seeing on Telegram and Instagram,” he said. “The protection on one hand [is reassuring], but it sheds light on the fact that Israel lacks a civilian spokesman to talk to the people, someone not in uniform who comes to the people telling them, ‘We have a great protection system but now we need to do 1, 2, 3.’ The IDF and the government are considering what is more cost-effective: to push guidelines like it did during the Gulf War with Nachman Shai telling everyone to drink water, or telling you, without really telling you, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t die. The missiles won’t hit you.’ But in the 2020s that is not enough. There needs to be a human being communicating with people in a crisis. And we are in a crisis.”

The Health Ministry on Friday instructed all hospitals to be on high alert, discharge patients who do not require hospitalization and asked the public to avoid coming to the hospital for non-urgent cases, as they also closed their outpatient clinics, save for essential treatments such as dialysis.

In a statement, Jerusalem’s Shaare Tzedek Medical Center said it had implemented enhanced emergency readiness protocols, including opening additional fortified spaces and implementing emergency and logistics protocols to prepare for potential developments.

“All urgent and emergency department procedures are continuing to be performed as required by the operating guidelines. The maternity and pediatric departments continue to operate as required with access to sheltered areas, including the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which operates in a sheltered space,” the statement said.

Magen David Adom’s deputy spokesman, Nadav Metzner, told eJP that MDA was working in coordination with security forces and on high alert with all its EMTs and paramedics deployed across the country in ambulances, mobile intensive care units and motorcycles. He said MDA had opened a special blood drive early in the morning in various safe locations throughout the country.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation and are in constant contact with Israel’s security forces. We need to rapidly increase our blood supplies,” MDA Director-General Eli Bin said in a recorded statement.

The Israeli medical assistance nonprofit Yad Sarah said that while it would not endanger the lives of its volunteers, the organization was acting to ensure the continued provision of uninterrupted service and all emergency centers were operating as usual. In light of hospital discharges, branches would receive medical equipment as needed, the statement said.

Bnei Barak Mayor Chanoch Zeibart told residents of the city in a radio interview that life was “continuing as usual” for the moment though schools would remain closed and reassured them that the city’s command center would remain open even on Shabbat for any necessary updates. “I urge everyone to stay calm on Shabbat,” he said.

Knesset Member Mansour Abbas issued a statement for the Israeli Arab sector and urged them to be vigilant and fully follow the Home Front Command’s instructions.

“What we are experiencing today is completely different from any previous war or escalation, both in terms of the level of danger and the potential for the situation to worsen. This reality requires all of us to act responsibly and be aware of the dangers, and to adhere to the law, order, and all official instructions,” he said in a statement.

Cities across the country opened their public bomb shelters and issued lists of shelters and underground parking garages that had been approved by the Home Front Command for public sheltering if necessary. Owners of private garages were also asked to open them for public use as shelters.

Though the Home Front Command had issued a clarification that the ban on gatherings was still in effect and there was no need to stay near protected areas in one Jerusalem neighborhood, residents were nevertheless scrambling to prepare a local synagogue’s bomb shelter for use by the broader public since the community’s only shelter had been closed a few months earlier as construction began on the site for a clubhouse for a youth group.

“Someone in a time of war decided it was the right time to close the shelter and begin construction for the club. Some neighbors have criticized this move,” said Udi, who declined to provide his last name, who lives across the street from the synagogue and spent the morning with his wife organizing it in case it is needed. “The synagogue shelter is not totally in accordance with the requirements.”