A married couple in their 70s were killed early Wednesday when an Iranian missile with a cluster warhead struck the Tel Aviv area.
The man and woman were found in a heavily damaged building in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv District Police Commander Haim Sargarof said the couple had apparently been on the third floor and likely did not make it to their safe room in time. He said they were killed only a few meters from the protected space.
The impact scene of Ramat Gan
Chen Amir, a neighbor of the couple, said he and his wife entered their safe room when the sirens sounded and heard a powerful explosion about a minute later.
"When I opened the door two minutes after that, thick smoke and the smell of burning filled the air and I could barely see," Amir said. "My home was damaged, but the couple’s apartment was hit much harder, with a hole ripped through the middle of the living room. They had a safe room but did not make it there in time. We were in the safe room, and that's what saved us."
Magen David Adom paramedic Inbar Green and emergency medic Naftali Halberstadt said they arrived to find smoke rising from the building, heavy destruction and shattered glass.
From the rubble, they found the two victims unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing, with severe injuries. They said medical checks showed no signs of life, and the two were pronounced dead at the scene.
Iranian cluster missile over Jerusalem
The missile that hit the area was one of two launched from Iran. One missile aimed at Jerusalem was intercepted, while the second, directed toward central Israel, carried a warhead that dispersed multiple smaller munitions.
Besides the two people killed in Ramat Gan, Magen David Adom said four others were lightly wounded in the strike. In Bnei Brak, medics treated and evacuated a 25-year-old man to Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Center with shrapnel wounds to his hand. In Kafr Qassem, three other people were treated for light injuries.
Iranian cluster missile hits Tel Aviv’s Savidor Central railway station
(Video: Yizhar Buchman, Meir Turgeman)
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Tel Aviv’s Savidor Central railway station damaged by Iran missile
(Photo: Lihi Gordon)
Reports of impact sites were received in Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak and Rosh HaAyin. Fire and rescue teams were sent to search several locations in central Israel after the launch of the missile from Iran.
Damage was also reported at Tel Aviv’s Savidor Central railway station after shrapnel fell near the site. Israel Railways said part of the station’s platforms were damaged and train service was temporarily suspended. Shuttle service was operating between Herzliya, Savidor Central and Ben Gurion Airport. No injuries were reported there.
Before the central Israel barrage, sirens warning of rocket and missile fire sounded in Kibbutz Misgav Am near the Lebanese border, about two hours after Hezbollah fired a large salvo of dozens of rockets toward northern Israel.
After the strike in central Israel, sirens sounded again in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Dead Sea area and the lowlands following additional launches from Iran.
In Lebanon, witnesses told Reuters that Israel later launched intense airstrikes in central Beirut.