The Bat Yam municipality confirmed Sunday that Efrat Saranga, 44, a resident of the city, was among those killed in an overnight Iranian missile strike. Authorities have not yet released the names of the five other victims pending official notification and clearance.
The evacuation of residents from the affected area continued well into Sunday morning. Only by midday was one of the victims formally identified, while Home Front Command teams kept searching the site for three missing persons.
At the reception center set up near the site, evacuees gathered, struggling to process the scale of destruction and the overwhelming sense of helplessness that accompanied it. Six people were killed in the direct hit on a residential high-rise in Bat Yam. The Iranian missile strike claimed the lives of a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl, an 18-year-old man, Saranga and two other women in their 60s and 80s. More than 100 others were injured. Numerous surrounding buildings were also damaged.
Rachel and Batel, two sisters who lived together in the damaged building, were asleep in bed when the missile struck. “We were in bed when it happened; we have no safe room or shelter,” Batel told Ynet. “We heard a loud blast, saw a bright flash from the falling missile and smoke everywhere. There was glass all over, all the windows shattered, the door broke. We fled the apartment and ran to a nearby parking lot to find shelter.”
The sisters stayed near the destroyed building throughout the night, waiting for information. “We haven’t slept; we waited by the ruins for someone to tell us what to do. Now we’ve come to the center for evacuees from the buildings, registered and are waiting for someone to contact us. We are in total shock, unable to process this.”
The moment the missile struck in Bat Yam
(Video: Yinon Halimi)
Tzur arrived at the reception center together with his daughter Camila and her partner Roy. “Our apartment is totally destroyed. There’s nothing left, everything collapsed. We were on the top floor — the entire roof caved in, all the walls crumbled,” Tzur described. “Luckily, we weren’t home.”
The family returned to the apartment in the morning to assess the damage, only to be horrified. Camila said, “We went to see what happened. It’s shocking — there’s nothing left to see: no ceiling, no floor, no living room, no apartment. We wanted to rescue some belongings, to take something, but there was nothing left.”
The only item they managed to retrieve was a nearly symbolic possession — a painting Roy had made himself. “We managed to take one painting and a few pairs of shoes — that’s it,” he said. Like many others, they now await guidance on what to do next: “We were supposed to go to work, to school — everything has stopped. We don’t know how to move forward from here.”
Hopes remain for the missing to be found and rescued
More than half a day after the missile struck the six-story building in central Bat Yam, three people are still unaccounted for. Home Front Command rescue teams are leading the search-and-rescue operation under the building’s ruins, parts of which have collapsed. The greatest fear is that the missing may be trapped beneath the rubble. Yet residents continue to hope for miracles, as survivors have been pulled from wreckage in past disasters against all odds.
The search is being conducted under hazardous conditions, as rescuers work beneath hanging concrete beams that could collapse at any moment. The teams are using technological equipment to locate possible survivors while carefully employing heavy machinery in hopes of finding trapped victims alive.
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So far, about 900 people have arrived at the assistance center set up by Bat Yam Municipality at Nachshonim School, seeking aid — including those whose homes were destroyed, others needing guidance for dealing with the authorities, and individuals suffering from shock who simply needed someone to talk to. Approximately 600 families have sought assistance, with half of them relocated to hotels. Many residents of the building that took the direct hit, along with residents of surrounding heavily damaged buildings, were evacuated to hotels as their apartments were rendered uninhabitable.
Mayor Tzvika Brot, who arrived at the scene shortly after the strike, is closely overseeing the search for the missing. “About 300 families have been relocated to four hotels: Roxon in Bat Yam, Seven TLV, Leonardo Boutique and Leonardo Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv,” the mayor reported.
Regarding the injured, Brot added: “20 patients remain hospitalized at Wolfson Medical Center. The others who were hospitalized have been discharged. The operation is still ongoing, and there are no final figures yet. People continue to arrive at the family assistance center for help.”