‘Nothing unusual’: Tel Aviv’s calm morning contradicts Nasrallah’s claimed drone strike
Unlike for the residents of the north, the morning looked as usual for the residents of Tel Aviv, including the northern neighbourhood of Glilot, which Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah claimed was hit by drones.
Tel Aviv residents head to the beach on Aug. 25, 2024, hours after Israel thwarted Hezbollah plans to strike the city. Photo by Yossi Zeliger/TPS-IL
“The desired target was the Israeli military intelligence base ‘Aman’ 8200 in Glilot, near Tel Aviv, and our information is that one of the two missiles reached this base,” Nasrallah said in a televised address on Wednesday evening.
The Glilot neighbourhood is home to several intelligence bases, as well as the headquarters of Mossad.
However, locals heard no explosions, and no alarms were even heard in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area.
Nika Zaidel, manager of Turkiz restaurant in the Glilot area, told The Press Service of Israel the eatery was open with no changes in the schedule. “There were a few cancellations in the morning, but it happens every day. We didn’t feel or see anything unusual,” Zaidel said.
Adjacent to the restaurant, it was business as usual at the Cinema City theatre and mall.
In other northern Tel Aviv areas, residents shrugged off the threat.
“I opened our neighbourhood’s WhatsApp group around 9.00 in the morning and saw that someone wrote, ‘Girls, stay home,’” media manager Anna Danishevsky, who lives in one of the city’s northern neighbourhoods, told The Press Service of Israel.
“I immediately checked the news to find out that everything had already happened. My friend’s husband is somewhere in the army, so I checked with her if it’s safe to go to the manicure appointment, and she said absolutely yes,” Danishevsky recalled to TPS-IL. “I rode my bicycle to have my manicure done, and on the way everything looked as usual, including the building site near my house with Arab workers. All the cafes were open and full of people.”
Locals showed no signs of panic outside the Ramat Aviv mall in north Tel Aviv.
Karmel Sher, who was with a friend, told TPS-IL there was no reason to cancel their plans.
“Life goes on. My friend and I agreed that we don’t need to put life on hold, because there is a difference between how the situation is described in the media and how it feels in the streets. And out in the streets here, everything is quiet. And thank you very much to our army which protects us,” Sher said.
As another resident of the neighbourhood, Joanna, a nail designer, told TPS-IL, “Don’t forget we are in the state of Tel Aviv. It’s not like in the north, where people are in the frontline and suffering. We live in a bubble here.”
No sign of smoke, debris or panic.
Nice day for a stroll and a swim