Israelis keep suitcases packed and ready as Trump weighs potential Iran strike decision

For more than a month, Michal Weits has kept suitcases packed by the front door of her house in Tel Aviv.

“We have our bags ready for weeks,” she said. “Three weeks ago, there were rumors that it was the night the U.S. would attack Iran. At midnight, we pulled the kids out of their beds and drove to the north, where it is supposed to be safer.”

Weits, the artistic director of the international documentary film festival Docaviv, is speaking from her own traumatic experience. During the 12-day war, an Iranian missile struck her Tel Aviv home. She, her husband, and their two young children were inside the safe room when it collapsed on her.

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“After an Iranian missile hit our home and we lost everything we had, we also lost the feeling of ‘it won’t happen to me,’” she said. “We are prepared, as much as it’s really possible.”

Weits remembers the surreal contrast of those days. Four days after being injured in the missile strike, while still in the hospital, she was told she had won an Emmy Award for the documentary she produced about the Nova massacre on Oct. 7.

“Four days earlier an 800-kilogram explosive missile fell on our home and I was injured, and four days later I woke up on my birthday to news that I had won an Emmy,” she said. “It can’t be more surreal than this. That is the experience of being Israeli, from zero to one hundred.”

She says Israelis have learned to live inside that swing. “Inside all of this, life continues,” she said. “Kids go to school, you go to the supermarket, Purim arrives and you prepare, and you don’t know if any of it will actually happen. We didn’t make plans for this weekend because we don’t know what will happen.”

That gap — between visible routine and private fear — defines this moment. The fear she describes is now part of the national atmosphere.

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On the surface, Israel looks normal. The beaches are crowded in the warm weather. Cafés are full. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has risen in recent days. Children go to school as Israelis prepare for the Jewish holiday of Purim and costumes are being prepared.

But inside homes and across local news broadcasts, one question dominates: when will it happen? When will President Donald Trump decide whether to strike Iran — and what will that mean for Israel?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Home Front Command and emergency services to prepare for possible escalation, with Israeli media reporting a state of “maximum alert” across security bodies.

Speaking at an officer graduation ceremony this week, Netanyahu warned Tehran: “If the ayatollahs make a mistake and attack us, they will face a response they cannot even imagine.” He added that Israel is “prepared for any scenario.”

The military message was echoed by the IDF. “We are monitoring regional developments and are aware of the public discourse regarding Iran,” IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. “The IDF remains vigilant in defense, our eyes are open in every direction and our readiness in response to any change in the operational reality is greater than ever.”

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Yet the psychological shift inside Israel goes deeper than official statements.

For years, Israelis lived with rockets from Hamas. The Iranian strikes felt different.

“The level of destruction from Iran was something Israelis had not experienced before,” said Israeli Iran expert Benny Sabti. “People are used to rockets from Gaza. This was a different scale of damage. It created real anxiety.”

Iron Dome, long seen as nearly impenetrable, was less effective against heavier Iranian missiles. Buildings collapsed. Entire neighborhoods were damaged.

“People are still traumatized,” Sabti said. “They are living on the edge for a long time now.”

At the same time, he stressed that the country is better prepared today.

“There are feelings, and there are facts,” Sabti said. “The facts are that Israel is better prepared now. The military level is doing serious preparation. They learned from the last round.”

The earlier wave of protests inside Iran had sparked hope in Israel that internal pressure might weaken or topple the regime. Weits told Fox News Digital, “I am angry at the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. I will be the first to travel there when it’s possible. I hope they will be able to be free — that all of us will be able to be free.”

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Despite losing her home and suffering hearing damage from the blast, she says the greater loss was psychological. “There is no more complacency,” she said. “The ‘it won’t happen to me’ feeling is gone.”

Across Israel, that sentiment resonates.