'The last thing we need is a new war diverting attention'

It was just after midnight on Friday when we heard the missile alarm. My partner and I had got ready for bed - we ran across the hall to our mamad, a metal-reinforced room in homes that doubles as a bomb shelter.

- Sara Weissel

We greeted our friends, each only looking up from their phones long enough to share the occasional, uneasy joke. None of this came as a surprise. The night before, Thursday, all six of us had been camping on the beach at Eilat in southern Israel when an alarm woke us at 3.30am, signalling Israel's attack on Iran had begun and prompting us to find shelter.

The Iron Dome early warning alarm is a long, high-pitched whistle, designed to jolt you out of sleep, providing about a minute's notice to find shelter. For many Israelis, it's the crown jewel of the defence system; I had naively thought it nearly impenetrable, until Friday night. Three died and dozens more were wounded from Iranian ballistic missile strikes that hit the suburbs of Tel Aviv.