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.
Three of the victims have been identified – Sarah Elimelech hy”d; her daughter and Ichud Hatzolah volunteer Ronit Elimelech hy”d; and Oren Katz 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.
A resident told Kikar HaShabbat. “The shelter was completely demolished, and so were other homes throughout the area. It feels like a war zone — tens of meters are destroyed. I didn’t believe something like this could happen here.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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13 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
ה” ירחם עליהם ועל כל ישראל
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