Sites of Impact

As expected, though, the Iranian counterresponse was fast and furious, and from Shabbos morning, Israelis were paying the price, as hundreds of ballistic missiles and swarms of suicide UAVs showered over the country in precision strikes from over a thousand miles away.

The first penetration that succeeded in breaching Israel’s aerial defenses and caused casualties was in Tel Aviv, a direct hit on an old residential building and lots of collateral damage, in an area with public shelters in the absence of the more modern apartment safe rooms. But the fiercest reprisal came the following day, when a heavy barrage of launches from Iran sent millions into shelters. And in the greatest tragedy of the war so far, a ballistic missile with an enormous warhead made a direct hit on a shul and shelter on Yehuda HaMaccabi Street in the old part of Beit Shemesh, leaving at least nine dead, dozens injured, and an entire town reeling.

The Tiferet Yisrael shul and the public shelter underneath were completely obliterated; hundreds of scorched seforim were scattered in all directions, dozens of surrounding houses were destroyed or severely damaged, and victims were trapped under the rubble of several collapsed structures.

As of press time, there were nine known fatalities: Ronit Elimelech,45, and her mother, Sara; Oren Katz, a father and husband; Gavriel Baruch Ravach, 16; Bruria Cohen and her adult son, Yosef; and three siblings from the Biton family — Yaakov, 16, Avigail, 15, and Sara, 13.