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Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Missiles hit hospitals, homes and families: Inside Israel's terrifying Iranian bombardment
CENTRAL ISRAEL - At least six people were seriously wounded Thursday morning when an Iranian ballistic missile struck Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center, part of a broader barrage that also scored direct hits on Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Holon. "We are hitting nuclear targets and missile targets precisely, and they are hitting the pediatric ward of the hospital. That says it all," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while surveying the damage at the hospital. The attacks on Israel have left many homeless and lucky to be alive. Ariel Levin-Waldman is one such person. He was at his in-laws' home in Rishon LeZion, where he and his family had been staying for several months during renovations to their own house—when an Iranian missile struck the residential neighborhood. The attack killed two people and injured dozens; a third victim died during an earlier wave of Iranian strikes. Iran Strikes Major Israeli Hospital After Claiming Israel Hit Its Arak Heavy Water Reactor "At around 5 a.m., I got the same missile alert everyone in the country gets," Levin-Waldman told Fox News Digital. "I grabbed my phone, ran downstairs with my wife and kids, and we made it to the shelter. My mother-in-law joined us." Then the missile hit the building. Read On The Fox News App "There was a flash of light, and everything went dark. We were choking, struggling to breathe," Levin-Waldman said. Realizing help might not arrive in time, he continued, "I couldn't wait to be rescued. We were suffocating, and I was afraid we'd be buried alive." Levin-Waldman tried to survey the damage inside the shelter, but the thick cloud of dust made it nearly impossible to see. All he could make out was that his arms and legs were still intact. The floor had become uneven, and the walls were damaged from the force of the blast. It was at that moment he realized the explosion had propelled a book cabinet across the shelter, hitting his mother-in-law in the head. "She was bleeding heavily, and I realized she had been calling out 'save us' in Hebrew, but her voice was faint," he recalled. "I managed to lift the cabinet off my mother-in-law, and when I did, I saw a potential escape route. I cleared the way so my wife, Tali, and our two-and-a-half-year-old, Renana, could get through. I had Ayala, my seven-week-old baby, on my shoulders as I made the opening. It was just enough to get them out." As they emerged, firefighters guided them to safety onto the street. In front of Levin-Waldman stood a wall of rubble where his car had once been, and his feet were cut by glass from the explosion. Everything You Need To Know About Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader Of Iran Unable to climb over the debris with his younger child on his shoulders, he handed her to a paramedic. Once he climbed over himself, he looked around—only to realize Ayala was no longer in sight. "Here I was, covered in dust and blood, almost naked, wandering the street screaming, 'Where is my child?" he recalled. Some people thought the worst. It took about 30 minutes to find her." Only 20 hours after Levin-Waldman survived the attack, another Iranian missile struck a building across from the hotel where he was staying in Rehovot. "The blast shattered the windows, and the entire building shook. We had a whole floor of people from our neighborhood traumatized, reliving the experience," he told Fox News Digital. "The hardest part is confronting how fragile we are and how close we came to disaster," he said. Since the conflict began on June 13, Iranian missile attacks have killed 24 Israelis and wounded over 800. The missiles do not discriminate—neither between men and women, children and the elderly, nor between Jew and Arab. That reality was tragically underscored over the weekend when four women were killed by a ballistic missile that scored a direct hit on their home in the predominantly Arab town of Tamra, just north of Haifa. These terror missiles also make no distinction between the political left and right. Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid dodged a tragedy on Monday when his son's house in Tel Aviv suffered damage from the aftershock of a direct missile impact that left many residents of the central metropolis homeless. "My one-year-old granddaughter's bed was covered in glass from an explosion caused by an Iranian missile. It is horrific to think what would have happened if she had been in bed," Lapid told Fox News Digital. "This is the enemy we are facing—a regime dedicated to our destruction and aiming to kill as many innocent children as possible. We have to remove the nuclear threat and the missile threat—for the safety of Israel and the world," he added. Coalition lawmaker Hanoch Mildwisky, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party, lives across the street from a building in Petah Tikva–located 6.5 miles east of Tel Aviv–which sustained damage in an Iranian attack that killed four people. "There were dislodged windows and cracks in the walls," Mildwisky told Fox News Digital. "In the building that was hit, there were unfortunately casualties. It was a very large missile, carrying nearly a ton of explosives, so the blast was massive and caused significant damage even hundreds of meters away from the impact site." Tugboats, Cruise Ships And Flights: Israel Begins Emergency Evacuation Of Citizens Amid Iran War Mildwisky emphasized that Iran must not be allowed to possess atomic bombs or the capability to develop them—particularly given the regime's repeated declarations of intent to destroy the Jewish state. As long as the threat remains, he said, Israel will be forced to continue its military operations. Jamal Waraki, a Muslim volunteer with the ZAKA emergency service, had just completed a rescue mission—pulling an 80-year-old man from the rubble—when he returned home at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday to find his own house destroyed. "That night, there was a missile impact in Rehovot. We tended to the building that had sustained a direct hit. Once we finished, I went home and discovered that my place too had been struck," Jamal told Fox News Digital. Thankfully, no one was home at the time. Jamal's family had been staying with his mother-in-law in Eilat, where they still are. While awaiting the finalization of new housing arrangements, Jamal has been sleeping in his car. Lihi Griner is well known in Israel due to her appearance in the local spinoff of the Big Brother reality TV show. She was in her safe room with her husband and three children when the Iranian missile struck Petah Tikva, in the same neighborhood as lawmaker Mildwisky. Griner resides in a complex with four residential buildings, one of which was directly hit. "There was a huge boom," she told Fox News Digital. "The kids were shocked, they started to cry, and we kept telling ourselves that there was an impact, but we're alive. It was surreal. I couldn't believe it happened to me." After receiving the all-clear to leave the safe room, she opened the door and found everything was completely destroyed. "Our windows were blown out of the walls, the doors were broken in half, the walls were damaged with big cracks, and all the balconies in the front of the building were demolished," said Griner. Initially, residents were sent to a school across the street, where authorities offered hotel options at no cost. Soldiers later escorted Griner's family back to their apartment so they could retrieve their belongings. While the residence is now safe, they can't sleep there due to the lack of windows. "I live day by day. I'm just happy we're alive. It gives us time to figure out what comes next," Griner said. For Levin-Waldman, what came next was an unexpected phone call from the Rishon Lezion municipality on Wednesday. To his relief, another member of the family had been found alive and unharmed four days after the attack: their dog, article source: Missiles hit hospitals, homes and families: Inside Israel's terrifying Iranian bombardment
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Missiles hit hospitals, homes and families: Inside Israel's terrifying Iranian bombardment
CENTRAL ISRAEL - At least six people were seriously wounded Thursday morning when an Iranian ballistic missile struck Be'ersheba's Soroka Medical Center, part of a broader barrage that also scored direct hits on Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Holon. "We are hitting nuclear targets and missile targets precisely, and they are hitting the pediatric ward of the hospital. That says it all," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while surveying the damage at the hospital. The attacks on Israel have left many homeless and lucky to be alive. Ariel Levin-Waldman is one such person. He was at his in-laws' home in Rishon LeZion, where he and his family had been staying for several months during renovations to their own house—when an Iranian missile struck the residential neighborhood. The attack killed two people and injured dozens; a third victim died during an earlier wave of Iranian strikes. "At around 5 a.m., I got the same missile alert everyone in the country gets," Levin-Waldman told Fox News Digital. "I grabbed my phone, ran downstairs with my wife and kids, and we made it to the shelter. My mother-in-law joined us." Then the missile hit the building. "There was a flash of light, and everything went dark. We were choking, struggling to breathe," Levin-Waldman said. Realizing help might not arrive in time, he continued, "I couldn't wait to be rescued. We were suffocating, and I was afraid we'd be buried alive." Levin-Waldman tried to survey the damage inside the shelter, but the thick cloud of dust made it nearly impossible to see. All he could make out was that his arms and legs were still intact. The floor had become uneven, and the walls were damaged from the force of the blast. It was at that moment he realized the explosion had propelled a book cabinet across the shelter, hitting his mother-in-law in the head. "She was bleeding heavily, and I realized she had been calling out 'save us' in Hebrew, but her voice was faint," he recalled. "I managed to lift the cabinet off my mother-in-law, and when I did, I saw a potential escape route. I cleared the way so my wife, Tali, and our two-and-a-half-year-old, Renana, could get through. I had Ayala, my seven-week-old baby, on my shoulders as I made the opening. It was just enough to get them out." As they emerged, firefighters guided them to safety onto the street. In front of Levin-Waldman stood a wall of rubble where his car had once been, and his feet were cut by glass from the explosion. Unable to climb over the debris with his younger child on his shoulders, he handed her to a paramedic. Once he climbed over himself, he looked around—only to realize Ayala was no longer in sight. "Here I was, covered in dust and blood, almost naked, wandering the street screaming, 'Where is my child?" he recalled. Some people thought the worst. It took about 30 minutes to find her." Only 20 hours after Levin-Waldman survived the attack, another Iranian missile struck a building across from the hotel where he was staying in Rehovot. "The blast shattered the windows, and the entire building shook. We had a whole floor of people from our neighborhood traumatized, reliving the experience," he told Fox News Digital. "The hardest part is confronting how fragile we are and how close we came to disaster," he said. Since the conflict began on June 13, Iranian missile attacks have killed 24 Israelis and wounded over 800. The missiles do not discriminate—neither between men and women, children and the elderly, nor between Jew and Arab. That reality was tragically underscored over the weekend when four women were killed by a ballistic missile that scored a direct hit on their home in the predominantly Arab town of Tamra, just north of Haifa. These terror missiles also make no distinction between the political left and right. Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid dodged a tragedy on Monday when his son's house in Tel Aviv suffered damage from the aftershock of a direct missile impact that left many residents of the central metropolis homeless. "My one-year-old granddaughter's bed was covered in glass from an explosion caused by an Iranian missile. It is horrific to think what would have happened if she had been in bed," Lapid told Fox News Digital. "This is the enemy we are facing—a regime dedicated to our destruction and aiming to kill as many innocent children as possible. We have to remove the nuclear threat and the missile threat—for the safety of Israel and the world," he added. Coalition lawmaker Hanoch Mildwisky, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party, lives across the street from a building in Petah Tikva–located 6.5 miles east of Tel Aviv–which sustained damage in an Iranian attack that killed four people. "There were dislodged windows and cracks in the walls," Mildwisky told Fox News Digital. "In the building that was hit, there were unfortunately casualties. It was a very large missile, carrying nearly a ton of explosives, so the blast was massive and caused significant damage even hundreds of meters away from the impact site." Mildwisky emphasized that Iran must not be allowed to possess atomic bombs or the capability to develop them—particularly given the regime's repeated declarations of intent to destroy the Jewish state. As long as the threat remains, he said, Israel will be forced to continue its military operations. Jamal Waraki, a Muslim volunteer with the ZAKA emergency service, had just completed a rescue mission—pulling an 80-year-old man from the rubble—when he returned home at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday to find his own house destroyed. "That night, there was a missile impact in Rehovot. We tended to the building that had sustained a direct hit. Once we finished, I went home and discovered that my place too had been struck," Jamal told Fox News Digital. Thankfully, no one was home at the time. Jamal's family had been staying with his mother-in-law in Eilat, where they still are. While awaiting the finalization of new housing arrangements, Jamal has been sleeping in his car. Lihi Griner is well known in Israel due to her appearance in the local spinoff of the Big Brother reality TV show. She was in her safe room with her husband and three children when the Iranian missile struck Petah Tikva, in the same neighborhood as lawmaker Mildwisky. Griner resides in a complex with four residential buildings, one of which was directly hit. "There was a huge boom," she told Fox News Digital. "The kids were shocked, they started to cry, and we kept telling ourselves that there was an impact, but we're alive. It was surreal. I couldn't believe it happened to me." After receiving the all-clear to leave the safe room, she opened the door and found everything was completely destroyed. "Our windows were blown out of the walls, the doors were broken in half, the walls were damaged with big cracks, and all the balconies in the front of the building were demolished," said Griner. Initially, residents were sent to a school across the street, where authorities offered hotel options at no cost. Soldiers later escorted Griner's family back to their apartment so they could retrieve their belongings. While the residence is now safe, they can't sleep there due to the lack of windows. "I live day by day. I'm just happy we're alive. It gives us time to figure out what comes next," Griner said. For Levin-Waldman, what came next was an unexpected phone call from the Rishon Lezion municipality on Wednesday. To his relief, another member of the family had been found alive and unharmed four days after the attack: their dog, Zvika.
Japan Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Israel's defense shield Is tested like never before as Iran fires ballistic missiles
As Iran fires masses of ballistic missiles, Israel's vaunted air defenses are being tested like never before. Iran launched around 200 such missiles at Israel on Friday night — in retaliation for a wave of Israeli strikes that day — and 70 or so on Saturday evening, according to the Israel Defense Forces. More came on Sunday and Monday. In total, Tehran's sent 370 ballistic missiles toward Israel, with around 30 hitting targets in the country, the Israeli government says. They have killed 24 people and injured almost 600. Towns such as Rishon LeZion and Bat Yam near Tel Aviv have suffered extensive damage to homes. Haifa, a port city in the north, has been heavily targeted, as has central Tel Aviv. Iran has also launched hundreds of drones, which have been more easily intercepted. "We have some good defense systems, but they're not hermetically sealing the skies,' Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, told ABC on Sunday. "About 10% to 15% of these ballistic missiles get through.' That's in line with the Israeli military's expected "leakage rate.' The U.S., while not joining Israel in striking Iran, is helping its ally intercept Tehran's missiles, with each wave costing millions of dollars to defend against. The attacks by Iran since Friday have been far deadlier and more damaging than when the Islamic Republic fired missiles and drones at Israel in April and October last year. Back then, Iran concentrated mostly on military and intelligence targets. This time, its firing larger numbers of projectiles and more are heading toward civilian areas. Israel has faced barrages of missiles and drones before from Iran-backed groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. But neither possesses the sophisticated ballistic projectiles fired by Iran, which travel at much faster speeds, carry heavier explosives, can maneuver midair and spend much of their flying time outside the Earth's atmosphere, making them difficult to intercept. "When you have a navigation system, it means that the Israeli air-defense systems cannot predict exactly what will be the route of the missile,' Giora Eiland, a retired major general and former head of Israel's National Security Council, told reporters Monday. "That's why, relatively, we miss more than we really want.' The Houthis in Yemen have fired ballistic missiles at Israel, but usually no more than one at a time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israelis to expect further attacks in the coming days from Iran and urged them to rush to bomb shelters when air-raid sirens sound or they get phone alerts. Stopping Iran from firing missiles is a top priority for the IDF. It has tried to target launch sites since Friday and officials have said that roughly a third — or 120 — of them have been taken out. Netanyahu says Israel is in "an existential campaign' that aims to set back Iran's nuclear program by years, if not forever. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Israel will "pay a very heavy price' for its strikes, which have killed at least 224 people, including top generals and atomic scientists, according to the Iranian government. Iran still has thousands of missiles left that can reach Israel, national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel's Army Radio on Monday. That's more than the figure of 2,000 suggested by comments from many Israeli officials in recent weeks. Yet even if the lower number is accurate, Iran can still launch salvos for several days, if not weeks. One major advantage for Israel is that it has blunted the firepower of Hezbollah and Hamas in its wars with them since October 2023. Around 2011, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said 500 people could be killed in Israel by retaliatory attacks if his government hit Iranian nuclear sites. But he included rockets from Hezbollah and Hamas in his assessment. Even a 90% rate of interception doesn't mean life continues as normal for Israelis. Schools have closed at least through this week, and more than 100,000 people are stranded abroad after the country's airspace was closed Friday. There is also the steep expense of the interceptions. Each of Israel's Arrow interceptor missiles, the ones typically needed to shoot down long-range projectiles, cost around $2 million to $3 million. Often, more than one is launched toward a ballistic missile to increase the chances of it being hit. In April last year, Bloomberg reported that it probably cost Israel — as well as the American, British, French and Jordanian air forces — around $1.1 billion to foil Iran's attack. That was for a few hours' work. This conflict has already lasted much longer. And there's little sign of a let up yet.
LBCI
6 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Blackout and blowback: Inside the first day of Iran-Israel war
Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi The widespread destruction inflicted on central Israeli towns during the first day of the "Rising Lions" war, launched in response to "True Promise 3," has prompted Israeli military decision-makers to revise their airstrike priorities in Iran. The new strategy focuses on targeting drone depots, ballistic missile platforms, and both surface-to-surface and surface-to-air launchers to secure Israeli Air Force freedom of operation over Tehran and to reduce the intensity of strikes on Israeli territory. Several high-rise buildings were rendered unusable, and hundreds of Israeli residents were forced out of their homes. In response, Israeli military censors imposed a strict blackout on any publication of photos or details related to sensitive facilities and military bases hit during the attack. The army confirmed that seven soldiers were wounded. The most powerful Iranian missile salvo targeted Rishon LeZion in central Israel, killing two people and injuring at least 30 others. Among those affected was a former senior Israeli security official whose residence lies just 250 meters from where one of the missiles struck. Though he was unharmed, the official—who previously held a top post in a major intelligence agency and now serves as CEO of a major Israeli energy company—remains unnamed. While many details of the first day of direct war between Israel and Iran remain undisclosed, Israel has escalated its rhetoric. After a high-level security assessment meeting, Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to "burn Tehran," a statement that sparked public debate over the vulnerability of Israel's home front should the war drag on. An Israeli intelligence report revealed that neither Tel Aviv nor Washington has succeeded in securing a regional or international coalition to help repel Iran's missile and drone attacks. The evolving conflict has left Israel's civilian population under increasing threat, and concerns are mounting over the military's ability to intercept the full volume of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones. How, when, and by whom will this war be brought to an end?
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
‘I Was Afraid I'd Die': Iran's Missiles Rained Down on Tel Aviv
A chorus of alarms from damaged cars and buildings wailed on Saturday afternoon through the empty streets of central Tel Aviv. Iran's missile attack the night before had left a gaping hole in one high-rise and had blown out windows for a block around. Six miles south, residents of the quiet suburb of Rishon LeZion were piling up shattered roof tiles and glass along the sidewalks after a projectile killed two of their neighbors in a two-story home on Saturday morning. Those who lived close to the impact site were busy gathering their belongings to evacuate to temporary housing. The Israeli government said 17 missile impact sites had been identified across the country after Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel between Friday evening and Saturday morning. The strikes were in retaliation for Israeli attacks earlier in the day. Three civilians in Israel were killed and over 170 wounded, including seven soldiers, the authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether the damage and deaths had been caused by the missiles themselves or interceptors sent to shoot them down, or falling fragments of both. The Israeli military said both missiles and interceptors had hit areas in Israel but declined to give details. The damaged high-rise in central Tel Aviv was near a government quarter and the military's headquarters. Residents who had evacuated from their high-rise complex after it was struck on Friday lined up to speak with a municipal official at a makeshift checkpoint near the impact site. Many appeared shaken. Amit Tzur-Amrani, 26, said she and her husband were huddled in a fortified room in their apartment on Friday when the air-raid alarms went off after 9 p.m. Then there was a loud blast and smoke poured into their shelter. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
