Melanie Amar went to Israel to plan a wedding. She has spent her nights in an air raid shelter instead.
The French influencer, known online as Melanight, flew to Tel Aviv with her partner for what was supposed to be a few days.
They were there to meet a rabbi ahead of their marriage.
Then the Iran war escalated, her flight home was cancelled and she found herself stuck in a country under missile fire with no clear way back to France.
‘A missile could arrive within minutes’
Amar, 32, who has 1.2 million Instagram followers and 877,000 on TikTok, said daily life in Tel Aviv is now built around sirens.
“When the city sirens sound, everyone understands that a missile could arrive within minutes,” she told Creatorzine.
“We get up and go to the shelters two or three times a night.”
She is staying with friends who have children in the house. That adds a layer she did not expect. “We can’t show that we’re afraid, but we know very well that missiles can fall near people we know, or directly on our heads.”
What has struck her most is how ordinary it all feels to the people who live there permanently.
“What I find sadly shocking is the population is used to living like this. People wake up to the alert, go to the miklat, then resume their day as if nothing had happened.”
Wedding plans replaced by survival logistics
Amar, who is Jewish, first found fame on French reality shows including Les Anges and Le Bachelor. She had no reason to expect the trip would become anything other than a brief visit to arrange her ceremony.
“I came to Israel to meet a rabbi to get married and was only supposed to stay for a few days,” she said. “But in the end I found myself stuck in a war where I can’t return to France.”
She added, with the kind of understatement that only really works when you are describing something terrible: “At least I came here for love, so there’s a good reason behind it.”
Her return remains uncertain. Her original flight was cancelled and she is still waiting for an alternative. “We just hope we can find a flight and get home soon.”
Trolls alongside the sirens
Amar said that sharing her situation online has drawn heavy criticism. Her posts have been “under relentless attack” from trolls, and even straightforward accounts of what she is living through have been poorly received. “Even simply explaining what I’m going through is sometimes very badly received,” she said.
Why it matters
The Iran conflict has already produced one high-profile influencer controversy this month, after Maddy Burciaga faced backlash for fleeing Dubai and leaving her dog behind.
Amar’s story is the opposite problem: a creator who cannot leave.
Both cases show how quickly the influencer lifestyle collides with real-world crises that content cannot solve.
Followers expect updates. Trolls arrive regardless of context. And the person at the centre has to decide in real time how much of a genuinely frightening situation to share with an audience that may not respond kindly either way.
The war shows no sign of slowing. Amar is still in Tel Aviv, still going to the shelter at night, still trying to get a flight home. The wedding planning is, for now, on hold.
