So far, 224 Iranians have been reported killed in the Israeli attack. On the other hand, the death toll of Israelis in the Iranian missile attack is 19. In this contrast of casualties, many people ask, why are Israel’s losses so low despite Iran’s continuous attacks?
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy of the Haaretz newspaper gave an idea of what measures Israel takes to protect itself. He told the Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera about their security measures.
Levy said, “First of all, the alarm system (in Israel) is working very well. This time, we get the alarm long before the sirens. We can prepare ourselves. For example, most of Tel Aviv has many shelters. All the new buildings have their own shelters and safe houses. So, from that perspective, you would think that the people are safe.”
However, this is not true for other communities in Israel. For example, Bedouin or Palestinian citizens of Israel do not receive this protection. The predominantly Palestinian town of Tamra in northern Israel, where at least four people were killed in an Iranian missile attack on Sunday, has no bomb shelters, Levy said.
On the other hand, the Jewish village of 1,000 people next door has several bomb shelters. “I think the more nights like this [Iranian attacks] go on, the more Israelis will not only start to get tired and scared, but we will eventually start to ask, is this doing any good? And where are we going? From war to war? From bombing to bombing? Because this time [the Iranian incident] is not like Gaza, not like Lebanon, the cost of civilian lives may be much higher than before. So Israel can take it for a few days. It cannot take it for a long time,” Levy said.
