Lives cut short as children, educators, families killed in Iranian strikes overnight
At the scene of the Bat Yam strikes this afternoon, President Isaac Herzog reflected on what he called a “very sad and difficult morning.”
Ten people were killed in Iran’s overnight strikes on Israel, between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Victims included multiple children and 4 members of a single family, across Israel.
In Bat Yam, six people were killed instantly, including two children. At least seven people were reported missing in the aftermath of the impact. Among the victims are two women aged 55 and 60, a 70-year-old man, an 18-year-old boy, and two children, a boy of 10 years and a girl of 8 years.
Israeli authorities say that the projectile which struck Bat Yam was not a new model but part of a salvo of known long-range heavy munitions, each containing hundreds of kilograms of explosives.
In Tamra, a village near Haifa, a strike which hit a three-story building killed four members of the same family. Manar al-Qassem Abu al-Hija Khatib and her two daughters, Hala and Shada, as well as their relative Manar Diab Khatib were killed in the strike. 13 others were wounded in the same incident.
Of the four women killed, three were pulled out of the rubble and a fourth was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The attacks are a heartbreaking tragedy
“This tragedy is heartbreaking. We have lost not only a wonderful educator who was a one-of-a-kind role model, but also precious daughters and a family member whose lives were cruelly cut short. The Haifa Municipality stands by the educational staff, families and the entire community at this difficult time,” Mayor Yahav said after speaking school staff Sunday morning. “We will remember Manar forever. May their memory be blessed.”Her daughter, Shada, was a second year student at the University of Haifa’s School of Law and worked as a research assistant and also worked in the Clinic for Human Rights.
Those wounded were evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam hospital, with one in serious condition and the others in mild to moderate condition.
In strikes from Friday into Saturday morning, three people were killed in Iran’s missile barrages toward Israel. On Saturday morning, Israel Aloni and Yevgenia Blinder were killed in a neighborhood in central Israel, as well as Eti Cohen Angel, who died after being critically injured by missile strikes in another central Israel residential neighborhood.
At the scene of the Bat Yam strikes this afternoon, President Isaac Herzog reflected on what he called a “very sad and difficult morning.”
“Our sisters and brothers were murdered and injured last night by criminal Iranian attacks against the civilian population in Bat Yam, Tamra and other communities. Jews and Arabs, veteran citizens and new immigrants, including children and the elderly, women and men,” he said.
“I share in the heavy mourning of the families and grieve the terrible loss. I pray for the recovery of the injured and to find the missing. We will mourn together. We will overcome together,” he added.
