JTA — Jacob Phillips’s first trip to Israel from his home in Germany was in 2023, to visit Holocaust survivors in Tel Aviv as part of a university program. It was cut short by the bloody October 7 Hamas onslaught, which forced him to leave the country.

He returned with his girlfriend this month to tour the sites he missed. “Because the last trip, it was a harsh cut,” he said. “That’s why we came back, to visit the people I met here in Israel.”

On Saturday, Phillips and his girlfriend Michelle were among the very few people walking the streets in Jerusalem as another war unfolded, this time with Iran. The war, which began when Israel and the United States together attacked Iran early Saturday, had already sent them multiple times to shelters and scrambled their departure plans for next Thursday. Ben Gurion Airport is closed until further notice.

Phillips said he was in touch with the German consulate and felt safe in Jerusalem despite the incoming missiles, citing Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system (while the Iron Dome protects mainly against short-range threats, Israel has other air defense systems that take on the ballistic missiles Iran has been firing). He said he remained happy to be in Israel.

“I wanted to come here to learn about the Jewish experience, especially as a German, and I feel like I have gotten to see so much of it,” Phillips said.

While missile impacts rocked Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel, an eerie calm pervaded the streets of Jerusalem on Saturday, extreme even for the Jewish day of rest, as residents hunkered down at home between the sirens that indicated that war with Iran had begun anew. The sirens sent worshipers scattering from Sabbath prayer services and disrupted plans for shared meals.

The gates of the Old City were closed by Israeli police to everyone but residents. A crowd of Hasidic Jews argued with officers, petitioning for entry to pray at the Western Wall, but ultimately gave up and turned back.

One resident who ventured out between air raid alerts said the assault had provided “pauses just long enough to walk up the stairs before heading back [down to the basement shelter] again.”

There was a consensus among those brave enough to venture away from........

© The Times of Israel