Israelis survey damage after Iran missile strike

While the sirens resounded in Israel in the early hours of Saturday morning, Ifat Benhaim and his family met their basement.

“We closed the door, and suddenly, there was such a big boom,” she said. “I thought the whole house had fallen on us.”

When they emerged a few minutes later, they found their broken windows and layers of dust and debris scattered through the front room.

On their rue Banlieue Calm of Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv, the roofs of several houses had collapsed. The glass littered the road. At least 30 cars were seriously damaged, with broken windows and huge bumps.

The Iranian missile struck shortly after 05:00, local time (03:00 BST).

He came in the middle of six waves of Iranian attacks overnight – launched in response to Israeli air strikes on Iran – who sent millions of people who presented themselves for shelter.

Two were killed in Rishon Lezion, with one named by the Israeli media under the name of Israel Aloni, 73. About 19 others were injured.

The ambulances and the rescue teams arrived shortly after the missile struck. Sniff dogs have been used to search among the broken concrete and the distorted metal for any unploded ammunition.

Now IFAT, her husband Zion and six young parents pack what they can from the house in which they have lived for 29 years – and try to decide where they will stay in the coming days.

One of their neighbors, who did not want to be appointed, said that she had chosen to stay with her daughter that evening – just in case. It may have saved his life.

Sally Ilan, 48, hung a dishes that she managed to recover from the ruins of her parents’ house.

“It was the first house to be built in the neighborhood,” she said, making a gesture behind her. “My father was so impatient to build it.”

“Forty years of memories have disappeared … it’s heavy on the heart.”

In total, three people were killed across the country during night strikes – two here in Rishon Lezion, one in the neighboring city of Ramat Gan. About 76 were injured.

But destruction – even in these most affected areas – is limited compared to what has been seen in Iran.

Operation Israel “Rising Lion” began early Friday with the assassination of Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists. He has since expanded, hitting Iran’s nuclear installations, missile sites, air defenses, military bases, airport and other infrastructure.

The Iran’s UN envoy said on Friday evening that 78 people had been killed at that time. On Saturday, an official from the Iranian Ministry of Health said that around 800 people had been injured.

Iranian state television reported that 60 people – including 20 children – had been killed in an Israeli strike on a block of capital apartments, Tehran.

In Rishhon Lezion, not far from the most affected houses, someone had written a question about a layer of dust on a car windshield: “Until when?”

This conflict can have less than 48 hours – but this is a question that most of the world poses now.