What is Life Like in Israel Today? My Personal Experience.

The only people visiting Israel now are people like you, my taxi driver said. We’d been talking about the Israel-Gaza War and the loss of tourism. I’d told him that I’ve lived here, have friends here, and travel here fairly often. This is what is life like in Israel today, he sighed. No one new comes. Only people who already know Israel.

It wasn’t long, though, before that would change. On September 29, 2025, the day after I arrived, President Trump announced a peace deal.  Twelve days later, a ceasefire went into effect.  On October 13, all of the remaining living hostages came home. The war was effectively over. Two days later, I flew home as scheduled. It was as if a door had opened, I’d walked through it for the purpose of experiencing the end of the war, and then walked back out the door.

I was privileged to get to experience Israel at the end of the Israel-Hamas War, yet I’d actually come to the country at this time for another reason. I was attending the wedding of a good friend, visiting other old friends, and also interviewing people for my Master’s thesis, all around the time of the major Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

In this post I write about what is Israel like right now. This is the first personal post I’ve written about my travels in the Middle East since 2018.

What is life in Israel like with all the wars?

My friend who lives near the border of Lebanon has a bomb shelter in the lower level of her house. Inside, there is a mattress on the floor. She told me sleeps in the room next door during wartime and then runs into the shelter if sirens sound during the night. So then you go to sleep in the shelter after the sirens stop? I asked.

No. No, she said. You don’t just fall back asleep. It takes a long time to get back to sleep after that.

My first night back in the country, I learned what she meant.  I was sound asleep when the war sirens sounded in Tel Aviv at 12:59 a.m. This was my second time visiting Israel during the Israel-Gaza War, but this was the first time I’d actually heard a war siren.

Sirens sound often in Israel, to signal the beginning of Shabbat each Friday or for holiday commemorations. War sirens, though, sound different from these “normal” sirens. Rather than the steady tone of normal sirens, war sirens undulate. So the moment an undulating siren woke me up, I knew there was an attack.

I figured it was probably a drone from the Houthis, as they were sending drones into Israel frequently during that time. The news the next day confirmed that was true. Reasoning with myself that the chances of the drone hitting my exact location were pretty slim, and not wanting to get out of bed and race around trying to find a shelter, I tried to go back to sleep. But my friend was right. It took hours to return to sleep after that.

There are bomb shelters all over Israel, but not enough. Shelters come in a variety of sizes and are found in many different locations. Some people, like my friend, have small private shelters in their homes. Other people don’t live close to a shelter at all and have to run down the street to a public shelter when the sirens sound. Other people, who can’t reach a shelter in time, go to an alternate safe spot such as a stairwell.

Related: Why is there war in the Middle East?

Tel Aviv is one of the locations that is particularly susceptible to rocket, missile and drone attacks. Some of their shelters are quite large and in good condition, as people use them frequently. Other locations don’t as often need shelters because there are not as many attacks there. Some places get hit often while other places rarely get hit.

As my friend in the northern city of Tiberias said when we were talking about what is it like in Israel today, “The war is bad, but it is not a homogeneous application throughout the entire country.” Still, after the onset of the war, the country installed extra shelters on the streets of Tiberias and elsewhere. In Tiberias people don’t often need to use the shelters so they don’t treat them as seriously as perhaps they should.

Regardless of any location’s susceptibility to attack, the Israel-Hamas War was the longest war in the country’s history. It deeply impacted everyone. In Tel Aviv, people were visibly keeping track of the number of days the hostages had been held captive. Many were wearing a strip of masking tape on their clothes with the number written on it, something they could easily throw away the next day and replace with a new number. You could find these pieces of tape displayed around the city, on signposts and other prominent areas.

This was the second time I’ve been in Israel when a major hostage release occurred. The first took place almost 14 years to the day before the release of the Israel-Hamas War hostages. On October 18, 2011 Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was kidnapped and taken into Gaza in 2006, was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. That was a huge and very emotional day for Israel. Everyone was overjoyed.

From my perspective, the release of the war hostages felt different. Yes, people of course felt relief and joy. But after two years of war, people were also quietly cynical. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” more than one person told me. With all of the harsh and hate-filled political divides now present throughout the world, some people also were focusing too much on their dislike of the political figures involved in the peace deal and hostage release rather than focusing on the human life aspect. Out of a highly positive situation they manufactured negativity.

Nevertheless, the living hostages were, thank God, released. Most of the deceased hostages’ remains have been returned to Israel, and the ceasefire has until now largely held. We all know that something is certain to ruin this, again impacting people’s lives as well as tourism in the future. However, it is good to embrace and appreciate the present peace for as long as it may last.

Arab wedding

Although I ended up in being in Israel for precisely the time that a peace treaty was announced, the war ended and the hostages were released, the primary reason I was in Israel this time was for the wedding of my good friend. I’ve known him since he was a small child, as he is the youngest son of a lovely Arab Israeli family I’ve been friends with for many years.

The Arab-Israeli culture is ethnically Palestinian but lives in Israel proper rather than the Palestinian Territories. Israeli Arabs are treated like Israelis rather than Palestinians. They have the same rights as Israeli Jews. Often, Israeli Arabs and Jews live, work and go to school side by side.

I’ve been to several wedding and engagement parties in the Middle East and can say that no two are alike. This time several parties took place over the period of a week. I attended three: the bride’s henna party, the groom’s henna party and the wedding party.

The bride’s henna party

The katb al-kitaab, or marriage ceremony, had taken place two weeks earlier. At this time the couple’s sheikh or religious leader had married them in a religious ceremony. However, they told me, their marriage was not official until the final wedding party concluded.

The groom’s henna party. This was my favorite party.

The three parties I attended were each very different. At all of the parties, my friend was the happiest and most excited I have ever seen him. They held two parties, including the final and most important party, at swanky indoor venues. Another was an outdoor garden party with fireworks. The food lasted almost all night long. At each, servers brought a large variety of food to the tables throughout the evening, for hours. By the time the entree arrived late at night, guests were too full to eat anymore.

The third wedding party. After this party, the couple were declared officially married.

Although Arab wedding celebrations are each unique, they do have some common features. Everyone dresses to the nines. Women might spend the entire day preparing for the evening. Professional video camera equipment makes it seem like you’re on the set of a movie. The music is always very loud, and they’re always very fun. There is nothing quite like an Arab wedding in the Middle East.

The Temple Mount

I’ve long had an interest in the Temple Mount. This religious site in Jerusalem’s Old City holds great importance to the Jewish and Muslim people and is important to Christians as well. Arabs call this site Haram al-Sharif. Jews call it Har haBayit. For this post I will refer to the site as the Temple Mount.

On the Temple Mount – Al-Aqsa Mosque on the left and the Dome of the Rock on the right

The Temple Mount is intriguing to me because it plays a central role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which I also have an interest. In fact, I am currently in the process of writing my Master’s thesis on the Temple Mount and how it is situated within the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Visiting Israel now, I spoke to and interviewed people for my thesis and, for the first time in many years, was able to visit this religious site.

The Temple Mount is probably the most volatile location in Israel due to its very high level of importance to Jews and Muslims and due to the conflicts and violence that often occur there. The past many times I’ve been in Jerusalem, this location has been closed to tourists so I could not visit it. When it is closed to tourists it is either due to security risks or because it is the month of Ramadan. The Temple Mount also is frequently closed to Palestinian men under a certain age. This happens when there is an uptick in conflict on the site or elsewhere in the country.

The site is effectively closed to Jewish people all the time. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel says that Jews should not go there at all. An increasing number of Jewish people do ascend the Temple Mount, though, especially since 2020. The Temple Mount is important to the Jewish people because it is the site of the First and Second Temples, both of which were destroyed centuries ago. Attached to the Temple Mount is the Western Wall which obviously Jewish people can visit.

The Temple Mount is very holy to Muslims primarily because it is the location of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Christians care about this site because we believe it to be where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac on a rock. The Dome of the Rock covers the rock where this occurred.

The Temple Mount is a stone platform 36 acres in size. On top of it stands not only the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque but also dozens of other structures including many mosques, the Prayer Niche of David and al-Kas fountain.

The Temple Mount is a unique and highly important site in Jerusalem. If you’re planning a trip to Israel, try to visit this site.

Jewish Holidays – Yom Kippur and Sukkot

My time in Israel frequently unintentionally coincides with major Jewish holidays. Visiting Israel this time was no exception. This time, I arrived just after Rosh Hashanah and just before Yom Kippur.

The holiday of Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is also a very unique way to learn what is Israel like whether you’re Jewish or not. On Yom Kippur, religious Jews in Israel fast for 25 hours. With the exception of Arab areas, nothing whatsoever is open in the country. No driving is allowed whatsoever. This is a very serious holiday.

Although Israel forbids everyone from driving motorized vehicles on this holiday, two motorcycles roared right past me while I was walking on a quiet stone street in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur. I was near East Jerusalem, which is Palestinian territory, and war tensions were very high. For this reason and because the Jewish people are typically respectful of their own holidays, I think the motorcyclists were probably Palestinian. Riding motorcycles on Yom Kippur is very dangerous because many people, including children, like to enjoy the holidays by walking and bike riding in the middle of streets and on highways because there are no vehicles.

Five days after Yom Kippur comes the Sukkot holiday. This holiday celebrates the gathering of the harvest and the protection God provided for the Israelites during the 40 years they spent in the desert while returning to Israel after centuries of living in Egypt. Many Israelis erect a sort of tent called a sukkah on their property for seven days in commemoration of this holiday. This year, perhaps due to the war, there were noticeably far fewer sukkot, at least in Tiberias.

The holiday of Shemini Atzeret immediately follows Sukkot. This year Shemini Atzeret fell on October 13. This ended up being the day that all of the remaining living hostages returned home.

That evening as the sun set, sirens sounded in Tiberias (holiday sirens, not war sirens). A song playing over loudspeakers followed the siren. The song to me sounded like a celebration of the hostages returning home. My friend explained to me, though, that this is a song that the religious Jewish people dance to while holding Torahs every year on Shemini Atzeret. The song is playing in the below video which I shot, but you may have to listen closely to hear it.

My most recent experience in Israel began with sirens jolting me awake in the middle of the night during a Houthi attack on Tel Aviv. My experience concluded with all of the remaining living hostages returned safely home to their families and an increased possibility of peace in the Middle East. In between were three wedding parties, time spent with friends, meeting the young son of a close friend for the first time, several Jewish holidays and working on my Master’s thesis. This is what is Israel like today. Only time will tell what happens next.

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