Israelis stock up on food, water and generators fearing imminent retaliation from Iran after Damascus attack

― Hello, do you have generators?

― “You are the twentieth person who comes in today asking about them. I don't have any left and you can save the money because there will be no war,” responds Sagi, a clerk at an appliance store inside the large Malja shopping center in Jerusalem.

Sagi points to a line occupied by capsule coffee makers and adds: “All that was full of transistors. We haven't had any left since the war started. [en octubre], but this week more people have come asking about them. They mainly ask for lighting systems [que no requieren electricidad].

The sequence shows the concern that has spread this Thursday among the population of Israel – with purchases of canned food, water and electricity generators – as the feeling spread that Iran will attack the country this Friday in retaliation for the murder of one of the main Iranian military commanders in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, two other senior military officials and 10 other people on Monday at the ambassador's residence in Damascus.

The military is on high alert, halting furloughs for all combat troops, calling up a few Air Force reservists and beefing up missile defenses. This Thursday, the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem carried out a mock scenario for mass care of victims and military correspondents on television called for calm, but reminded viewers just in case that they have up to 11 minutes to reach an air-raid shelter. in the event of a missile launch from Iran and several hours if it is a drone. There are no scenes of panic or lack of people on the streets, but you do see families with particularly large shopping bags.

With rumors of an imminent attack circulating on social networks and Telegram and WhatsApp groups in Hebrew, the Army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, has appeared to remind that the military instructions for the population “have not changed”, as usually happens before a war horizon. “It is not necessary to buy electricity generators, food or withdraw money from ATMs,” he said.

In Malja, a teenager listens to him and explains to someone on the phone that she is going to return home without the electric generator because Hagari has just said that it is not necessary. Aviad is less trusting. She is 40 years old and leaves the supermarket with her two children. She doesn't have a packed cart, but she does have quite a few large bottles of Coca-Cola and water, packaged bread that she warms up in the microwave, and a dozen eggs.

― Eggs are perishable…

– This is just a purchase that I decided at the last minute due to all the pressure today. Actually, I already have everything prepared. I bought many things after the elimination [el ataque del lunes en Damasco] and I already have a generator at home. Come on, my family is prepared for whatever comes.

An elderly woman who prefers not to give her name pays for a flashlight and an external mobile phone battery at a home products store, Home Center. “I have one at home, but I don't know if it works or, at my age, what batteries it needs,” she says. I came today because of the situation, yes.” The situation is the word with which many Israelis refer in the abstract to the Middle East conflict. The shop assistant, Silvia, explains that they now display three new products next to the cash register: a small emergency lamp that works without electricity, external cell phone batteries and matches, normally aimed at religious Jews, because they are used to light the candles in the church. sabbath.

The sum of several unreassuring elements has changed the mood in just 24 hours, despite the fact that no political or military leader has formally spoken out about an imminent attack by Tehran. One of them, about which they specifically asked the spokesperson, were the words to the troops, released by the army, of the head of the military intelligence services, Commander General Aharon Haliva: “I have said more than once and twice. times when it is not certain that the worst is behind us and that complex moments await us.”

Alterations in the GPS signal

Another is that navigation applications, such as the Israeli Waze or Google Maps, have begun to fail in places like Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, showing the location in Beirut or Cairo. It is due to the alterations of the GPS signal carried out by the Israeli army to hinder attacks. It used to happen when approaching the border with Lebanon, in the first case, or with Gaza, in the second, but not in the center of the country. The military has recommended that Israelis manually configure their location in the app of the Rear Guard Command to correctly receive alerts about projectiles and drone infiltrations.

Following the attack in Damascus, Iran's president, Ibrahim Raisi, promised that Israel will pay a “heavy price.” Similar threats have not always been met in the past, such as after the assassination in 2020 in Iraq by the United States of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian soldier more relevant than the recent deceased and considered the most powerful person after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The response could also occur in Israeli embassies abroad or through its allies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen or militia groups in Iraq. Tehran calls it “strategic patience”: waiting to see when and how to respond to an affront like the one Israel carried out on Monday.

In Israel, however, a rumor has spread that the retaliation will take the form of an unprecedented shower of missiles from Iran itself and will be this Friday, as it is Al Quds Day (Jerusalem), the day of solidarity with the Palestinians. which Iran celebrates every year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Amos Yadlin, former head of the Israeli intelligence services, told the Reuters agency that he would not be “surprised” if it was the chosen day, although he called on the population not to “panic” or “run to the shelters.” .

The markets do not have the same opinion, as they do not quite believe a large-scale attack by Iran on Israel. Brent oil, the best thermometer of the degree of nervousness of financiers about the open conflict in the Middle East, was trading in tables late this Thursday afternoon. Natural gas, for its part, rose moderately and for reasons completely unrelated to the regional hornet's nest, reports Ignacio Fariza.

Crude oil is a particularly sensitive raw material in this case. It is because Iran is the eighth largest producer in the world, just one step away from the United Arab Emirates, and a key member – founder – of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, the sectoral cartel). Also because the Strait of Hormuz, despite the forced change of many large shipping companies, continues to be a key transit point for oil tankers. In the last 12 months, Iranian crude oil exports touched $36 billion (€33 billion).

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