STORY: Huddled on mattresses in an underground light rail station in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, some Israelis felt it was the safest place for them and their loved ones during Iranian missile attacks.

Israel launched an air war against Iran on Friday (June 13), aimed against Iran's nuclear project. Iran, who denies seeking nuclear weapons, has since launched retaliatory, sometimes deadly missile attacks on Israel.

Schools and non-essential businesses across Israel remain shuttered since Friday, as air raid sirens have been sending millions to bomb shelters and safe rooms during the day and in the small hours of the night.

Around the Tel Aviv metropolitan, Israel's commercial hub, some have been seeking safety at underground train stations.

The Dankal is the greater Tel Aviv's light rail. In one of its underground stations in Ramat Gan on Tuesday night (June 17), people were lying on city-supplied mattresses lined along the floor, the odd camping chair and plastic water bottles strewn about.

"I feel scared, overwhelmed. Especially because I live in a densely populated area that Iran is seeming to target and our city has very old buildings, without shelters and safe spaces," said Tamar Weiss, clutching her four-month-old daughter with her son next to her.

Despite the inconvenience of having to relocate her small family to the station every evening at around sunset, Weiss said that the underground station is the place where she feels the safest.

"I wish everyone could be down here. I wish everyone would have a place that's as safe as here."

Families with children as young as Weiss's, young couples with their pets, elderly people and foreign workers -- thousands of people from the greater Tel Aviv area find shelter in the light rail stations that are nestled deep in the ground, said Dankal's Spokesperson Avi First.

He explained that some of the stations, built less than a decade ago, were predesigned for this purpose exactly.

Since Friday, Iran has fired around 400 missiles at Israel, some 40 of which have pierced through air defenses, killing 24 people, all of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities. Iranian officials have reported at least 224 deaths, mostly civilians, though that toll has not been updated for days.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

"This is the safest place," Israelis camp in underground train station amid Iranian missile attacks

VIDEO SHOWS: ISRAELIS, INCLUDING FAMILIES WITH BABIES, ELDERLIES AND PETS PREPARING FOR AN OVERNIGHT STAY AT AN UNDERGROUND STATION OF TEL AVIV LIGHT RAIL, DANKAL, TO SHELTER FROM IRANIAN MISSILE ATTACKS / COMMENTS BY PEOPLE TAKING SHELTER, DANKAL SPOKESPERSON

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL (JUNE 17, 2025) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. UNDERGROUND STATION OF GREATER TEL AVIV'S LIGHT RAIL, 'DANKAL'

2. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON MATTRESSES ON STATION'S FLOOR, PREPARING FOR THE NIGHT UNDERGROUND

3. WOMAN WITH TODDLER ON MATTRESSES

4. PEOPLE CAMPING IN STATION

5. VARIOUS OF CHILDREN

6. 45-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, TAMAR WEISS, WITH HER BOY AND BABY GIRL ON MATTRESSES

7. WEISS'S SON

8. WEISS

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 45-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, TAMAR WEISS, PREPARING FOR AN OVERNIGHT STAY IN AN UNDERGROUND TRAIN STATION WITH HER TWO CHILDREN, SAYING:

"I feel scared and overwhelmed, especially because I live in the densely populated area that Iran is seeming to target. And our, our city has very, very old buildings without shelters and without safe spaces. So that is why I'm here with my son and my little baby daughter, who is four months old today. Today, she's four months old."

10. WEISS'S SON

11. BOARD SHOWING LIGHT RAIL ROUTE

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 45-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, TAMAR WEISS, PREPARING FOR AN OVERNIGHT STAY IN AN UNDERGROUND TRAIN STATION WITH HER TWO CHILDREN, SAYING:

"So this is our second night here. Yesterday we came around seven (19:00PM). And today we actually had someone to help us get here. So we arrived a little bit before seven, maybe. Today, I think.. we yesterday we were here... we come around seven. It's also important that the city is supplying us mattresses, which is very nice. So we don't want them to run out. So we want to make sure we get a mattress."

13. FAMILIES ON MATTRESSES IN UNDERGROUND STATION

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 45-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, TAMAR WEISS, PREPARING FOR AN OVERNIGHT STAY IN AN UNDERGROUND TRAIN STATION WITH HER TWO CHILDREN, SAYING:

"I wish everyone could be down here. I wish everyone would have a place that's as safe as here, because I think this is really the safest place in all of all of Ramat Gan, the whole city. And I really hope that everyone in shelters in the city is also as safe, so I do worry about it"

15. PEOPLE CAMPING ON TRAIN STATION FLOOR

16. 31-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, ALEXANDR ZBOROVSK, SITTING ON MATTRESS WITH PARTNER AND DOG

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 31-YEAR-OLD RAMAT GAN RESIDENT, ALEXANDR ZBOROVSK, SAYING:

"We come here only for alerts and to spend the night. I mean, when we finish our work, we come here about 7 p.m. and go back about 7 a.m. to start to have a breakfast and start to work again."

18. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CAMPING ON STATION FLOOR

19. PEOPLE WALKING IN CARRYING MATTRESSES AND BLANKETS

20. MORE OF PEOPLE IN STATION

21. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPOKESPERSON FOR GREATER TEL AVIV'S LIGHT RAIL, 'DANKAL' AVI FIRST, SAYING:

"Now, these stations -- we have nine of them -- were built about five or six years ago. And they all been planned to be shelters for, for case of war - as you know, Israel is involved in a war with Iran just now. And these stations, there are planned to protect civilians against missiles, just as we see now."

22. PEOPLE IN STATION

23. VARIOUS OF PERSON CARRYING MATTRESS INTO UNDERGROUND STATION

24. MORE OF PEOPLE PREPARING FOR OVERNIGHT STAY AT UNDERGROUND TRAIN STATION (SOUND: FEMALE VOICE SOUNDING CHILDREN'S SONGS, ENCOURAGING DANCING AND SINGING)

25. WOMAN AND GIRL ON MATTRESSES

26. VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF STATION