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BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Iran missile strikes: Father's anger exposes divide in Israeli society
"I am so angry," says Kasem Abu al-Hija, Saturday, four of his family members were killed when an Iranian missile struck their home in northern Israel, collapsing the concrete building on top of clothes, children's toys and body parts were blown into the road, witnesses whole street was plunged into darkness when the missile hit. Rescuers managed to locate their bodies by following trails of four victims were named as Kasem's daughter Manar Khatib, 45, his two granddaughters, Shada, 20 and Hala, 13, and their aunt, Manal Khatib, had managed to make it to the two reinforced safe rooms in the house that they shared - but the ballistic missile hit it lived in Tamra, an Arab-majority town in northern Israel. Minutes after their deaths, a video emerged online. It showed the Iranian missiles streaking through the sky overhead. As they descend on Tamra, a voice can be heard shouting, in Hebrew: "On the village, on the village.""May your village burn," a group of others then say, singing, whooping and clapping. "They sang about what happened to my family," says Kasem, softly, surrounded by relatives at a video - which shows Israelis singing a common anti-Arab chant often sung by ultranationalist Jews - has been widely condemned in Israel, with President Isaac Herzog calling it "appalling and disgraceful".But there are more reasons that Kasem and the wider community in Tamra are angry about what - as is the case with many Arab-majority communities in Israel - there are no public bomb shelters for its 38,000 comparison, the nearby Jewish-majority town Karmiel, population 55,000, has 126 public of Tamra have long raised the alarm over the disparity. Situated in Israel's north, about 10km (6 miles) east of the city of Haifa and 25km (16 miles) south of the border with Lebanon, the town has been vulnerable to rockets fired by the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah. In October 2024, a rocket fired by the group seriously injured one woman. Across Israel, about a quarter of the population have no access to a proper shelter. But in non-Jewish local authorities the figure is almost half, according to a 2018 report by Israel's State Comptroller, the most recent data available. "For many decades, Arab local authorities have received lower state funding across various areas, including emergency preparedness," says Lital Piller of the Israel Democracy Institute, a think shelters do exist, she says, "they are few, poorly maintained, and often not suited for prolonged stays".The BBC has approached Israel's Ministry of Defense for comment. Israeli Arabs - many of whom prefer to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel - make up a fifth of the country's population. By law, they have equal rights with Jewish citizens, but they routinely complain of state discrimination and being treated as second-class citizens. Following the Gulf War of 1990-91, when Iraqi missiles hit Tel Aviv and Haifa, the Israeli government mandated that all new residential buildings must contain a reinforced safe room, or Mamad, as they are known. But Arab communities often face tough planning restrictions, which leads to unregulated construction and homes being built without them, activists 40% of Tamra's homes have their own safe room, local authorities say, leaving the majority of residents having to run to neighbours' homes to share. In many cases, due to the short warning period, this is not possible."The gaps are enormous," says Ilan Amit, of the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Equality, and Cooperation (Ajeec), which works to build shelters in Arab communities. "I live in Jerusalem. Every building has a bomb shelter. Every neighbourhood has a public bomb shelter."As dark falls in Tamra, residents' phones light up simultaneously with a screeching alert: "You must stay near a protected area."Sirens soon follow, and residents - fresh from the trauma of Saturday's strike - panic. Mothers gather their children and people run up the street shouting. Several families cram into the safe room of one house. Some cry, some smile, others twitch nervously. One man closes his eyes and prays. Boom after boom is heard shelter issue is even more pronounced in Israel's Arab bedouin communities - many of which live in villages in the Negev Desert that are not recognised by the Israeli government, so do not have shelters built for them. The only victim of the April 2024 escalation in hostilities between Israel and Iran was a young girl from one such community who was seriously injured and spent a year in hospital after fragments from an Iranian missile struck her of shelters is also a prevalent issue in some of Israel's poorer Jewish communities in areas like the south of Tel Aviv. A new survey conducted by Hebrew University found that 82.7% of Jewish Israelis support the attack on Iran - but 67.9% of Arab Israelis oppose it. Further to that, 69.2% of Arab Israelis reported feelings of fear over the strikes - with 25.1% expressing despair."Arab society feels neglected and left behind," says Amit. "There are huge gaps in education and employment. There are huge gaps in shelters, in the existence of shelters."Adel Khatib, a municipal official from Tamra, says: "In the days since this happened, you can feel the anger.""We don't get the basic needs," says Khatib. "Most of the Arab communities, they don't have community centres or buildings for culture, activities."According to official Israeli statistics, in 2023, 42.4% of the Arab population lived below the poverty line - more than double the proportion in Israel's general have been attempts in recent years to close these gaps. In 2021, Israel's previous government brought in a five-year development plan for Arab society. "We were in the middle of a huge leap in social economic development, narrowing gaps in education, higher education, and employment," says Israel's current right-wing governing coalition, the most hardline in its history, has slowly reduced funding for that plan - redirecting the money of these cuts came as the government adjusted budgets to fight the ongoing war in Gaza, which began in response to the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. "This government has been simply putting, you know, sticks in the wheels of this five-year plan, not making it possible to implement broad parts of it," Amit adds."For the past year and a half, Arab society found itself between a rock and a hard place in the sense that on one hand, they're suffering from the policies of the current government, and on the other hand, they're seeing their brothers and sisters in Gaza and in the West Bank suffering because of the war," he says. Outside the ruins of the family home, Mohamed Osman, 16, a neighbour, says: "Everyone is angry and sad."Speaking of Shada, 20, he says: "She studied her entire life. She wanted to be the best. Her father is a lawyer, and she wanted to be like him. All of those dreams, just disappeared."They were the best picture of a happy family…When I imagine them, I imagine the pieces of them that I saw."At a vigil ahead of the funeral, dozens of community members gather, greeting one another with handshakes, sharing coffee and tea, and mourning quietly."The bombs do not choose between Arabs or Jews," says Kasem. "We must end this war. We must end it now."Photographs by Tom Bennett
Sky News
4 days ago
- General
- Sky News
Israel-Iran live: Trump says G7 exit nothing to do with ceasefire - as Israel and Iran trade strikes
'I've lost my family, but for what?': Man's wife and two daughters killed in Iranian strike By Cordelia Lynch, Sky News correspondent in Israel Cups of coffee are being carefully poured into small paper cups, each one served with a comforting embrace. Close by, huddled under an arched courtyard, women of all ages are sitting, grieving in their own way. Some are sobbing, others look dazed, others desperate. Their intermittent wails of grief puncture the silence. Yet there's a beautiful stillness about it all. We've arrived just at the moment that the Israeli city of Tamra has come to a standstill. Everyone here is waiting for the bodies of four members of the Khatib family to return, killed when a ballistic missile from Iran hit their home on Saturday night. Manar Khatib was killed alongside two of her daughters - 20-year-old Shada, and 13-year-old Hala - and her sister-in-law, also called Manar. Layan Diab, 23, is a cousin of the girls. She's in disbelief. "It's a deep loss. It hurts my soul. We lost our entire family. Four people here. I can't fathom it. I don't understand. It's unbelievable," she says. And she's fearful of the coming days. "Every time we hear the sirens, people start to scream and remember," she says. Just down the street is the girls' grieving father, Raja Khatib. A lawyer with a charming warmth, he starts to speak Italian, assuming we may be from Italy. He'd just returned from a holiday there with his wife and children in Ferrara. His eyes fill with tears as he says that if only he'd stayed a day longer, they would all be alive today. 'I feel terrible. I feel fire in my body… I hope that I will survive this moment. I've lost my family, but for what? A missile from Iran?"
Sky News
4 days ago
- General
- Sky News
'I've lost my family, but for what?': Man's wife and two daughters killed in Iranian strike on Israel
Cups of coffee are being carefully poured into small paper cups, each one served with a comforting embrace. Close by, huddled under an arched courtyard, women of all ages are sitting, grieving in their own way. Some are sobbing, others look dazed, others desperate. Their intermittent wails of grief puncture the silence. Yet there's a beautiful stillness about it all. We've arrived just at the moment Tamra, Israel, has come to a standstill. Everyone here is waiting for the bodies of four members of the Khatib family to return, killed when a ballistic missile from Iran hit their home on Saturday night. Manar Khatib was killed alongside two of her daughters - 20-year-old Shada, and 13-year-old Hala - and her sister-in-law, also called Manar. Layan Diab, 23, is a cousin of the girls. She's in disbelief. "It's a deep loss. It hurts my soul. We lost our entire family. Four people here. I can't fathom it. I don't understand. It's unbelievable," she says. And she's fearful of the coming days. "Every time we hear the sirens, people start to scream and remember," she says. Just down the street is the girls' grieving father, Raja Khatib. A doctor with a charming warmth, he starts to speak Italian, assuming we may be from Italy. He'd just returned from a holiday there with his wife and children in Ferrara. His eyes fill with tears as he says that if only he'd stayed a day longer, they would all be alive today. 'I feel terrible. I feel fire in my body… I hope that I will survive this moment. I've lost my family, but for what? A missile from Iran?" I ask if he sees an end to this conflict between Iran and Israel. He seems despairing. "Conflict with Iran, Lebanon, Gaza. We have a government who want[s] war. We want peace. We want to live." 3:08 Listening in supportively from the side is his middle daughter, 17-year-old Razan, who miraculously survived the blast. That evening, she'd been out to buy cookies with her sisters. When they returned, Razan and her older sister Shada played music and watched videos on their phones. When the alarms started to sound, they dismissed them at first. But after a loud boom, Razan was unsettled and started to make her way to one of the safe rooms, imploring Shada to do the same. But only Razan went. 0:24 "In one moment, everything went dark. I couldn't see anything. I asked Allah, please don't take my life," she describes with searing clarity. She could hear her father calling out for them all. But his cries were met with silence. Razan's family home is now a mound of rubble. When we arrive there, we find neighbours and friends clearing the rubble. Many are deeply traumatised. Ammad, who's sweeping debris outside the house opposite, tells me he saw body parts flung across the road and into a nearby garden, and there's blood on the walls. It is a deeply visceral and harrowing account of an attack that took everyone by surprise. This is a residential neighbourhood. It's thought the missile was bound for Haifa, more than an hour away and home to oil refineries. But this time, with this missile, it fell on civilians. And took with it, futures.
Egypt Independent
5 days ago
- General
- Egypt Independent
Iranian strikes expose bomb shelter shortage for Palestinian towns inside Israel
Tamra, Israel CNN — In a small, tight-knit town near Haifa in northern Israel, residents here never thought they would experience such horror. Inhabited by Palestinian citizens of Israel, Tamra was left shaken after an Iranian missile struck a residential building late Saturday evening, killing four civilians, Israel's national emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) reported. The rocket struck a home belonging to the Khatib family at around 11:50pm, according to emergency responders. Manar Khatib, a local teacher, and her two daughters Shatha, 13, and Hala, 20, as well their relative Manar Diab were all killed instantly. Manar's husband Raja and their youngest daughter Razan both survived. Over the last 20 months of war, rockets have occasionally been launched from across Lebanon's border into northern Israel. But Tamra has never taken a hit like this – until hostilities with Iran erupted into direct strikes between the two countries this week. The morning after, the mood in the Lower Galilee town was somber, compounded by anger over a lack of adequate bomb shelters, an issue that Palestinian citizens of Israel have long warned was a glaring inequality that exists throughout their communities. The street where the missile landed was filled with bulldozers trying to clear the debris. Many cars were burned from the impact, with glass shattered all around. Residents and volunteers gathered around to offer support and condolences. The buildings next to the Khatib home had sustained some damage, and almost every home had its windows blown out. 'When we heard the strike, everyone in the village headed there to help. It was a very difficult and chaotic evening. We found body parts littered across the street, and very tragic sights we didn't want to see,' Mohammad Diab, an emergency rescue volunteer told CNN. Diab said it was difficult to reach the family because of the intensity of the impact. Emergency responders searched for survivors trapped under the 'heavy destruction' of the three-story building. A man stands inside a damaged room after missiles fired from Iran impacted a residential building in Tamra, northern Israel June 15, 2025. Ammar Awad/Reuters For 25-year-old neighbor Mohammad Shama, Saturday night was 'terrifying'. 'As soon as the escalations began with Iran, we knew the situation would be dangerous, but we didn't think the danger would come this close to us,' he told CNN. He rushed to his neighbors' home as soon as he heard the blast and tried to help retrieve the bodies. The only reason the Khatib family's youngest daughter survived was because she was sleeping in the room the house uses as a shelter, he said. But not every home in Tamra even has a shelter. Lack of shelter access Only 40% of Tamra's 37,000 residents have either a safe room or a functioning shelter, the town's mayor Musa Abu Rumi told CNN. And there are no bunkers or public shelters which are otherwise ubiquitous across most Israeli towns and cities. In the wake of the attack, his municipality decided to open up educational facilities in Tamra to be used as shelters for whoever didn't feel safe sleeping at home. 'The government has never financed the construction of shelters in our town, because they have other priorities,' he said. Several government ministers have visited Tamra in the wake of the attack, and Abu Rumi said others are planning to visit in the coming week. He told CNN he wants to take advantage of that to raise the issue of neglect in Tamra, and 'bridging the gap between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel'. The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), an independent research center published a report in the wake of the Tamra attack, describing how 'Arab communities remain unaddressed' almost two years since the outbreak of war. The report points to the 'significant gaps in protection' between Arab and Jewish communities. Civil defense capabilities are built into the infrastructure of Israel. Israeli law requires all homes, residential buildings, and industrial building built since the early 1990s to have bomb shelters. These shelters prove crucial to protect Israelis when warning sirens go off – providing the public with safe and fortified locations to hide from incoming rockets. Emergency and security personnel stand inside a damaged building after missiles fired from Iran impacted a residential building, in Tamra, northern Israel June 15, 2025. Ammar Awad/Reuters However, many Palestinian towns in the country's north 'lack public shelters, protected areas, and shelter facilities,' according to a statement from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. 'The urgency in providing such a response gains secondary validity in light of the fact that the main disparity in the field of defense in the northern district is within Arab towns,' the statement continued. Local resident Shama conceded that there is neglect in Tamra and said he suspects it's because of racism. Social media videos show In many ways, the Tamra strike has highlighted not just the tragedies of this war, but also increasingly embittered fault lines and divisions in Israeli society and governance. In a neighboring town called Mitzpe Aviv, social media video verified by CNN showed Jewish Israelis rejoicing over the rockets raining down on Tamra this weekend, shouting 'may your village burn!' Knesset member Dr. Ahmad Tibi told CNN scenes like that were the 'result of the culture of racism that has spread in Israeli society and the escalating fascism.' Another Knesset member, Naama Lazimi, condemned the video on X, writing; 'shame and disgust.' On the lack of shelters, Lazimi added that 'this is an even greater shame because this is a state with racist and abandoning policies.' Tamra resident Nejmi Hijazi also lamented the video, telling CNN 'in your own country, you are treated as a stranger, even as an enemy, even in your blood and in your death.' Social media videos showing Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem hailing Iran's attacks on Tel Aviv have also circulated. One resident was apprehended and taken in for questioning, according to Jerusalem District Police – a move that national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir applauded, warning that 'anyone who celebrates with the enemy will be punished!' Men walk near a damaged vehicle at an impact site following missile attack from Iran in Tamra, northern Israel, on June 15, 2025. Ammar Awad/Reuters As the threat of more strikes continues to fuel fears in Israel, the residents of Tamra are left feeling anxious. 'Last night was one of the most difficult nights I have ever experienced. I can't forget the image of the little girl I saw trapped under the rubble,' Manal Hijazi, a neighbor told CNN. Hijazi described the Khatibs as some of the nicest and most loving people in the neighborhood. Manar had taught most residents in Tamra. One of her former students is Raghda, a neighbor whose house was also damaged by the Saturday blast. 'I was in bed with my three daughters when the rocket struck. The window blasted open and I got hit by dust and rocket remnants. That happened all in front of my eyes, with my daughters right next to me,' Raghda told CNN, teary and shaking. Raghda described the horror she felt cradling her 4-month-old daughter throughout the attack. She said her daughters were shocked and remained silent for many hours. 'There is no way I will be sleeping at home tonight,' she said. CNN's Dana Karni contributed to this report.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
‘They just see you as an Arab': Israel's Palestinian citizens given cursory protection from attack
When an Iranian missile bound for the industrial port of Haifa dropped out of the sky on the town of Tamra on Saturday night, it fell on Israel's most vulnerable, and in one devastating flash, lit up the country's deepest divide. The missile demolished a three-storey stone house and killed four members of the same family: Manar Khatib, and her two daughters – Shada, a university student, and Hala, a 13-year-old schoolgirl – as well as Manar's sister-in-law, Manal. It was a solid house built in an old Arab style and it had two 'safe rooms'', one on each floor. When they heard the air raid sirens Manar and her daughters ran to the one on the second floor as they had practised, but the reinforced concrete did not protect them. They were blown apart and the floor under them fell on the safe room directly below, crushing Manal. The blast blew the core out of the building, and sent the neighbours flying. About 40 people were injured, though none of the wounds were life-threatening. 'The explosion was so loud I can still hear it,' said Azmeh Kiwan, a 50-year-old homeowner who lived directly opposite. When he opened his eyes, the whole district was in total darkness. It was only when the town's rescue workers came with their bright lights that the neighbours could see the road was full of rubble, and it was only when the sun rose that they saw body parts scattered on their terraces and roofs. Kheir Abu-Elhija, a local first responder, who was one of the first on the scene, said he had worked 20 years as a nurse and never seen anything like it. 'The second floor safe room came right down on the first floor safe room and crushed everything,' he said. 'The only way we could find Manal's remains was by a trail of blood,' he said. The war between Israel and Iran involves powerful modern weapons that can turn a human body into vapour and scraps in an instant. Israel also has modern air defences which have managed thus far to intercept most of the incoming Iranian missiles. And for three-quarters of the country there are underground bunkers, a virtual guarantee of survival. But the Khatib family did not have a bunker. They were Palestinian citizens of Israel, like the rest of the 37,000 population of this old hillside town in the Lower Galilee. And in common with most Palestinian-majority towns, Tamra does not have a single underground shelter. Like much else in Israel, there is nothing equal about the way death comes from the sky. 'The Israeli government, since the creation of the state, didn't invest in one public shelter for the Arab part of society,' Tamra's mayor, Mussa Abu Rumi, said. The reinforced 'safe rooms' in new-build houses are an inferior alternative, as the fate of the Khatibs showed, and Abu Rumi said only 40% of Tamra residents even have those. 'I would like to think that the government, since missiles have become part of warfare, will start a multi-dimensional programme to invest in the Arab community, and building shelters would be part of that,' the mayor said. Asked if he thought the current hard-right coalition would pursue such a programme, he shook his head and admitted there was 'no hope'. While missile strike sites in Tel Aviv, Rishon ReZion and Bat Yam have been flooded with rescue workers, home front troops, police and volunteers, most of the clear-up in Tamra was done by neighbours and a handful of municipal workers. Taking a water break on a shaded terrace, Azmeh Kiwan and his elder brother Bassam, who live directly across from the Khatib house, made clear in an interview they identified themselves as Israeli Arabs. Tamra is an ancient Arab village, they pointed out. 'I am from here. I belong to this place and I will die here,' Azmeh said. The brothers also declared themselves fully behind the war against Iran, a country they described as wellhead of terrorism. It was only afterwards, when the tape recorder was off, that another neighbour came forward to vent his anger, which he claimed was shared by all of Tamra, at a video that had circulated since last night. It was filmed from a nearby Jewish town, and showed missiles and Israeli interceptors streaking across the black sky, but when a missile falls short and slams into Tamra, you can hear people around the camera rejoicing. 'To the village! To the village!' one man cries, and then several women's voices join in, someone starts clapping and together they sing a verse that has become a Jewish extremist anthem. It consists of one line: 'May your village burn' sung over and over again. 'Please write about this,' the neighbour said. 'If I say anything I will have 20 police cars at my house.' Abu Rumi said he knows where the video was made, and has informed the Israeli government and the police, but has little expectation of anyone being brought to justice. 'We are trying to engage with Israeli society all the time,' the mayor said. 'What we find is hatred, and people who don't see you as a legitimate human being in this place.' He said the centre in Israeli politics had collapsed, and with it the few protections Palestinian citizens of Israel could count on. 'The political power that the settler parties have in government is creating this division,' he said. 'They just see you as an Arab no matter where you are from.' Ayman Odeh, a member of the Knesset who is a personal friend of the Khatib family, said: 'There is a connection between the politics of this government and those who are celebrating this terrible situation.' Odeh argued that war with Iran is just the latest symptom of an untreated wound at the heart of the Middle East. 'It is all connected to the Palestinian issue, and as long as we do not resolve the Palestinian issue we will keep going in circles for ever,' he said. He added that it was also the outcome of Benjamin Netanyahu's need for conflict to stay in office. 'Netanyahu is using this war for political reasons,' Odeh said. 'He's putting everyone in danger in the region with this war, and the war in Gaza. This is the most fascist and dangerous government that we ever had, and it is a danger to everyone.'
