At least nine people were killed and dozens wounded Sunday when an Iranian ballistic missile struck a residential area in Old Beit Shemesh, scoring a direct hit on a public shelter shortly before 2 p.m., authorities said.
Witnesses reported that several victims were inside the protected space when the missile hit, collapsing the structure and causing extensive destruction to nearby buildings.
Police said approximately 50 people were wounded, with at least 20 taken for medical treatment. Eleven individuals remain unaccounted for as search-and-rescue operations continue.
Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem declared a mass casualty incident as emergency teams worked to treat the injured.
Four of the victims have been identified – Sarah Elimelech hy”d; her daughter and Ichud Hatzolah volunteer Ronit Elimelech hy”d; Oren Katz hy”d; and Gavriel Revach hy”d.
The other victims have not yet been publicly identified.
Chaim Weingarten, deputy director of operations for ZAKA, described the scene as “a tragedy that cannot be described in words,” saying volunteers were working to recover victims with dignity. Magen David Adom paramedic Nati Ben Shimon said responders found multiple casualties in critical and serious condition and established a forward triage point to evacuate the wounded.
Border Police units are searching for possible survivors under the rubble, while bomb disposal experts are clearing the area of additional munitions.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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24 Responses
How sad!
I wonder if the shelter was underground and maybe old. Also I wonder if these apartments that have safe rooms in big buildings can repell a direct hit from a missile. Most crazy thing is to build high rise apt buildings in a country that is a war zone. You need to spread out with one to three family homes all over the country.
Flatbush yid: Nothing can survive a Direct hit.
Flatbush yid,
With all the wondering, me thinks you’re wondering way too much . It’s easy to wonder from Flatbush
Who is the owner or manager of the building?
Horrific on every level. May Hashem yinkom damam of these holy souls. If anything brings Mashiach tzidkenu it will be this. We are on the brink – the abyss.
I don’t think it was a highrise
I live close enough that my home shook, and other townhouses in my row lost windows. But a different neighborhood with a different (more Anglo) demographic. Here is what I know from the community:
The miqlat was under a shul
The shul was hosting a Purim event. That is why so many children were involved.
And YitzchakM is right. Not only did it blow out windows by me and break my shul’s door, it blew down matzeivos in Eretz haChaim cemetery some 2-1/4 miles from me. The explosion was HUGE
?” ???? ????? ??? ?? ?????
Flatbush yid – There are huge differences between rockets from Gaza and missiles from Iran. Read the reports on what the IDF destroyed, and realize that you can’t get all of them in one shot. These are missiles with the power to travel continents, not just miles. It’s basically impossible to survive a direct hit if you’re not a nuclear silo.
@Jersey-Jew:
You’re not actually suggesting that he has to go to a war zone before being allowed to wonder, right?
at times like this, it is best to think of Rambam at the end of Moreh Nevuchim
Hopefully the last remnants of the evil terrorists from iran who will pay a thousand fold for this, hopefully to the point where we won’t have to worry about them again but very often they chicken out right before finishing the mission
I believe if they dig deeper into the ground when building new construction they can make better bomb shelters. No building high rise apt buildings as it’s way to dangerous. You must build one and two family homes only. Spread out and this way people can live like mentchen. Not crammed up in tiny apts. young prople in Brooklyn are moving to Lakewood and Miami with big homes instead of small apartments. You need to spread out with.
These israelis will still tell all Jews living peacefully around the world to make aliyah to this dangerous war zone
Everyone blames each other.
And building design.
And Purim parties.
Each person who died had a job to do in this earth. Every person who is affected by their death was supposed to be affected.
Every mourner is hand picked by HaShem.
Nobody suffers without a cheshbon in shamayim.
And yet…
Megalgelin Zechus al yeday Zakai, v’Chov al yeday Chayav
Every villain who is responsible for their deaths will pay dearly.
Purim teaches us that there are no coincidences. HaShem is a Masterful playwright.
Only Amalek claims that things just “happen”.
Only Amalek rejects HaShem’s Hashgacha Pratis.
A Yid looks INWARD, and asks himself:
What does HaShem want from me?
The Answer is different for each individual.
By Design.
Flatbush Yid: Let me be blunt. You have ZERO experience in building, risk managment, security… You ZERO idea what a missile is, what its blast radius is, what its kinetic energy at moment of impact is etc…
I realize you wanna be helpful, so I’ll tell you what you could put your brain power to improving: The amount of tefillos bieng said.
You have no idea how painful it is to hear some of the completely disconnected, uninvolved and outrageous comments ftom our fellow yidden as we sit here in our bomb shelters. Please stop it with city planning and other suggestions. Please daven for yidden in Eretz Yisroel and yidden in Iran!
Thinking out loud,
Exactly!!!!
Inmy:
Where do Jews live peacefully? In US and Europe with Hamas marches?
To Thinking out loud:
Thank you-excellent comment
Thinking out loud
So you are basically saying the people of bais shemesh have to see why this happened to their community. Maybe they need to become stronger in their faith. Maybe they need to look after the many American teenagers who fall through the cracks. It’s a growing Frum community. Growing very fast. I spoke to people who live there. They told me the problem is there are basically two types of yeshivas. One is Israeli Chareidi style with no English or secular subjects and the other zionistic but has secular subjects. Many Frum Americans cant find the proper yeshiva for their teenage kids who need some secular subjects but are also more Frum than mizrachi type yet cant handle the Israeli Chareidi style. You need an American yeshiva that teaches in English like Lakewood. Some smart rebbe should open such a yeshiva and we won’t hear of such tragic attacks in bais shemesh. From Brooklyn New York my humble advice.
Flatbush Yid, please stop trying to come up with eitzas to save the world.
When tragedy happens, we are supposed to look inside of ourselves, not look for practical reasons and all kinds of brilliant advice.
There’s a war going on. You in Flatbush and I in Lakewood and the rest of our fellow Yidden in Eretz Yisroel and everywhere else in the world belong doing one thing and one thing only – Teshuvah and Tefillah (okay, make that two things).
A freilichen Purim and a gantz yahr freilech to all of Klal Yisroel!
Amazing how someone sitting in Brooklyn thinks he (or she) is an expert on all things Israeli – and Beit Shemesh (it’s written with a T, not an S – and before you start saying that that’s a Tziyoinishe Apikorsishe pronunciation, remember that the original population here was Moroccan – who always pronounced the letter ? with a T sound).
Specifically with respect to Beit Shemesh – the rocket hit in a very non-Anglo part of town, populated almost exclusively by old-time Moroccan families. Nothing to do with the school situation for American Olim, since there ARE NO American Olim in that area – so stop trying to find a cause that has to do with your limited knowledge of Beit Shemesh. And as an FYI, there IS a Chareidi “Yeshiva Tichonit” for high-school aged boys in the Beit Shemesh area – it’s called the Mesivta.
So go back to what Chazal said to do when a tragedy happens – “yefashpesh b’ma’asav”. It does NOT say “yefashpesh b’ma’asei chaveiro”. Look for what YOU can do to improve – not what yenem can do to improve.
an Israeli Yid