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As the war with Iran enters its fourth week, support for the conflict remains extremely high among Israeli Jews, despite the ongoing toll. At least 15 people have been killed inside Israel during the ongoing strikes, but despite those dangers, the public's backing for the war shows few signs of diminishing, at least so far. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
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CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Workers sweep up piles of broken glass at the large indoor mall in Arad. It's just across the street from where an Iranian missile hit Saturday night as 50-year-old Oren Gossbelker's shift as the mall security guard was ending.
OREN GOSSBELKER: The siren goes off. I go to the shelter and I heard boom, and all the dust inside.
KAHN: Dust filled the bunker, and the children in there began crying, he said, You could feel the bomb shockwaves roar through the building and hear glass shattering everywhere. Gossbelker says from Day 1, he supported the war in Iran.
GOSSBELKER: We started it, and yes, we need to finish them, all this regime, all this radical Muslim regime.
KAHN: Despite the destruction all around town, residents are defiant...
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: ...And cheer as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motorcade whizzes by and when President Isaac Herzog visits a local bakery.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: Israeli Jews are nearly unanimous in their support for the war, according to public opinion polls. In the first week, in two separate polls, more than 90% of Israeli Jews approved of Israel's strikes on Iran and the assassination of its top leaders. Dahlia Scheindlin, a public opinion researcher and columnist, says Israelis have shown deep political division over the past years, especially during the war in Gaza. But when it comes to Iran, they are more unified.
DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN: The perceived threat of Iran seems to rise above some of the deepest political divisions in Israeli life. But we don't know how long that effect will last.
KAHN: Polls are already showing slight cracks in that unity as millions of Israelis continue spending hours in bomb shelters.
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KAHN: Rebecca Ash and her husband, Itay Hatam, are making espressos in their apartment in Ra'anana in central Israel.
REBECCA ASH: We've made so much coffee the last three weeks, we know what we're doing.
KAHN: They have three kids stuck at home and live on the fifth floor. Getting everyone down to the bunker is tough, especially in the middle of the night. They're exhausted. But Ash says it will be worth it for a more secure Israel.
ASH: It's about making the world in its entirety safer. And it's hard to see how something you think is so true is not perceived as such by so many people across the world.
KAHN: Hatam, however, isn't as optimistic.
ITAY HATAM: There's internal reasons for war in Israel that would be good for the government.
KAHN: He doesn't trust Netanyahu's motivations for the war. That cynicism is gaining ground.
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KAHN: Another siren sounds in a Tel Aviv neighborhood.
We've got to get into the shelter.
ROMI: Yes.
KAHN: We were a little late. You're a little late too.
ROMI: Oh, my gosh. Let's go.
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KAHN: However, this time, the gap between the siren and interceptor stopping the Iranian missile was short.
We made it. That was scary.
ROMI: Yeah.
KAHN: How are you doing?
ROMI: I'm not sleeping, so I'm super tired all the time. It's like a state of tiredness that won't leave me.
KAHN: Romi, who asked we only use her first name so she could speak publicly about her politics without retribution, says she was more hopeful at the beginning of the war that life in Israel would be safer.
ROMI: I'm afraid that it's just going to be for nothing and the Iranians will still be caged by this regime, and the Middle East will just be more and more angry.
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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