Israelis weary but prepared for possible Iran strikes

Under the shadow of a possible war between the United States and Iran, Israelis expressed weariness at the prospect of strikes on their country but said they were ever-prepared for a regional flare-up.

"The threat of war is, for us, a kind of routine," lawyer Maya Liya Cohen told AFP in the northern port city of Haifa.

"No matter what happens, what we do, if it has anything to do with us or nothing to do with us, then we are under continuous threat," she added.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran, and the US is currently pressing its biggest military build-up in the Middle East in decades.

If war erupts, Israel could end up in the firing line of its regional arch-foe.

For Israelis, memories of missile barrages from Iran lie in the not too distant past.

Israel launched unprecedented strikes on Iran last June, triggering retaliatory drone and missile attacks and sparking a 12-day war.

The US briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

In Israel, the war killed 30 people and caused considerable damage, notably to a hospital and public institutions, including some army bases.

The lingering threat of war has prompted Cohen to adopt round-the-clock preparedness.

"We always have a safe place. It's actually our bedroom in our house," Cohen explained.

"We have water, we have an emergency kit, we always have things that are ready over there in case."

Shira Pinkas, a 52-year-old writer and yoga teacher living in the Tel Aviv suburb of Kiryat Ono, told AFP she was weary of the uncertainty but had a small suitcase ready just in case.

Pinkas lives with her twin six-year-old daughters on the fifth floor of an apartment building.

Like Cohen and many other Israelis, her apartment is equipped with a "mamad", or reinforced room, but even with the shelter she said she did not feel safe.

"Last time (in June), 10 minutes from here in Petah Tikva, there were people who had taken refuge in a mamad on the fifth floor and were killed by a missile," she told AFP by phone.

During that war, Pinkas said her family slept in her basement yoga studio a few streets away, and that she was preparing her daughters for the same possibility now.

"A month ago, I was really stressed, I didn't want to relive what I had experienced in June. But now I'm less stressed. We're a bit jaded," she said.

"I find that to survive situations like this, when you don't know what the future holds, whether or not there will be a threat to your life, to be able to cope with it all you have to change your perspective, become resilient."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that Israel was facing "complex and challenging days".

"We are keeping our eyes open and are prepared for any scenario," he told lawmakers in a brief address to parliament.

Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran with fresh military action if it does not cut a deal with the United States.

Iran said Friday that in order to reach a deal, the US will have to drop its "excessive demands", tempering the optimism expressed after ongoing Oman-mediated talks seen as a last-ditch bid to avert war.

The US on Friday authorised the departure of non-emergency embassy staff from Israel "due to safety risks," saying that people who wished to leave should do so while flights were still available.