Bonus: Rising Lion
In the very early morning hours of Friday, June 13th, 2025, Israel launched a long-anticipated strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership. It was 3am and sirens went off across the country. Israel has been at war, now lasting more than 600 days and officially the longest war in Israeli history, so it’s not uncommon these days for Israelis to wake up in the middle of the night and run for shelter. Since the war began, missiles were launched towards Israeli settlements by multiple terrorist organizations including Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah in Yemen and others in Syria and Iraq. Yes, it’s a rough neighbourhood to live in. Iran also launched its drones and ballistic missiles at Israel - first in April 2024, then again in October. But this time was different - Israelis who looked at their phones were alerted by the Home Front Command app (yes, there’s an app for that) that the Israeli air force was now attacking targets in Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Throughout that day, awaiting a retaliatory strike, Israelis prepared their bomb shelters as schools and workplaces were shut down. Iran's response was eventually launched in the evening hours. With over one thousand miles between the countries, it takes about 12 minutes for a ballistic missile fired from Iran to reach Israeli airspace, so there’s ample time to warn the population. Thankfully, all drones launched from Iranian soil were shot down, many of them in the skies of Iraq and Jordan, in collaboration of Israeli pilots with Western allies. Hundreds of missiles were intercepted by Israel’s multi-layered aerial defense system, considered the most advanced in the world. But, unfortunately, some Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, had impacts. Throughout the past week, Israelis ran to shelter every day and on some days more than once.
One of the first impacts of the Iranian attacks on Israel was in a Tel Aviv high-rise residential building. Residents were swiftly evacuated from their apartments by search and rescue teams. Families were provided with hotel rooms in the city. This was easy to orchestrate since many reservations were cancelled due to the fact that Israeli airspace was completely closed - a first in the history of Ben Gurion International airport, not being able to receive any incoming flights. Now starting to re-open, Israeli airline companies mostly focus on bringing home Israelis who were stranded abroad. Another impact in Tel Aviv shattered the glass off windows of the city's historic museum and at least two architectural masterpieces of the White City - pristine Bauhaus buildings built in 1930’s Tel Aviv, officially recognized as a World Heritage Site - were damaged beyond repair. Thankfully, the city saw only property damages and light injuries and no casualties. Unfortunately, other Israeli cities were worse off.
The city hasn’t completely returned to normal, as Operation Rising Lion is still ongoing, with anticipation of American involvement in the coming weeks. Some Tel Avivians are still opting to have their night’s sleep in one of the underground stations of the city’s light rail or other public shelters, while other residents left the city for the meantime, making free parking spaces ever so easy to find. Yet still, a spirit of adapting took over Tel Aviv in the past week. Businesses cautiously re-opened; from one day to the next, coffee places seemed to become busier; and walking the city streets, one could see more people with bathing suits on their way to the beach.
My name is Tomer Chelouche and I've been guiding tours in Tel Aviv since 2008. I started out of fascination with my family history - the Chelouche family was one of the founding families of Tel Aviv. My ancestors built this city - and I'm telling its story.
The best way to get to know Tel Aviv better is by purchasing one of my audio tours. In each episode of this podcast I recommend one of the six audio tours I created in Tel Aviv or the one I created in Jerusalem. While I obviously can't recommend visiting Israel right now, I want to keep these experiences alive for you, and for the future that's coming, may we see peaceful times.
If you’d like to support my efforts, feel free to pre-buy the audio tours from the comfort of your home. You’ll have lifetime access to the audio tours, so whenever you come visit Israel - you’ll be able to enjoy them. This is much appreciated in these turbulent times, until tourism will pick up again and tour guides like me will be back doing what we love - telling the amazing story of this incredible place.
You can download my audio tours over the app called Voicemap. There's a link in the show notes to purchase my audio tours in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -
Voicemap audio tours in Israel
If you have any questions - you’ll find all the ways to contact me on telaviv.tours (telaviv as one word, no space, no hyphen) and there’s a link in the show notes for your digital convenience.
This bonus episode was to let you know that despite the challenges we're facing, Tel Aviv Tours podcast will continue as usual. That's simply what we do here - we endure, we adapt, and we keep telling our story. The last regular episode aired the day before yesterday, covering the daily rhythms of Tel Aviv from the days before these current developments unfolded, and our next pre-recorded episode will air on schedule, next week, and so will future episodes, some already written and waiting to be recorded.
Now, regarding our city's wonderful museums - as I detailed in the previous episode and will explore further in the next episode - these cultural treasures are currently closed. However, here's something crucial to remember: I write these episodes in advance, thinking of travellers coming to Tel Aviv the month after they are aired... Is it too optimistic to hope tourism to Tel Aviv will be back in July 2025? Perhaps. But as the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, is often quoted: “In the Land of Israel, a person who doesn’t believe in miracles is not being realistic.”
This means that if you're listening to this and planning a trip for next month, there's genuine hope that things will return to their normal rhythm by then, God willing. These museums - keepers of our culture and history - will hopefully reopen by then to welcome visitors again, their stories preserved and waiting to be shared.
Here's what you need to understand about Tel Aviv - we've walked this path before, and we've always found our way back. Actually, this isn't our first encounter with air bombardment. Tel Aviv was struck by Italian airplanes in 1940 during World War II. Struck again by Egyptian airplanes in 1948, during the Israeli War of Independence, Tel Aviv endured. The city was shelled by Jordanian artillery in the 1967 Six Day War and perhaps most vivid in recent memory is the Gulf War of 1991, when Tel Aviv was directly targeted by Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles.
Each time, we rebuilt. Each time, we emerged stronger than before. Also, Italy is no longer fascist. Egypt and Jordan have signed peace accords with Israel, their former arch-nemesis. And Iraq is no longer the rogue state it used to be. Things change, and so it’ll be with Iran. Israelis can’t wait to see commercial flights from Tel Aviv en route to Tehran, just as things were before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
As I record this, I can hear the distant sounds of the city maintaining its daily rhythm. Yes, it's quieter than usual. Yes, we're all more cautious. But the irrepressible optimism of Tel Aviv remains unchanged. We've weathered storms before, and we'll weather this one too. Our city's spirit is unbreakable.
Thanks for listening and you’ll hear from me again when the next regular episode comes out next week.Until then - I am Tel Aviv tour guide Tomer Chelouche, signing off and hoping to see you soon in Tel Aviv.
