Results of Iran’s attack: Damage to 100 houses and a school, 3 Israelis wounded, one Palestinian killed in Jericho
Shrapnel hits towns near Air Force and IDF bases in central Israel
As dawn rose over Israel on Wednesday, the morning after the unprecedented missile assault by the Iranian regime, the scope of the damage wrought by the attack became clearer.
Three Israelis were lightly wounded by shrapnel, while the only fatality from the attack was a Palestinian man from Gaza who was killed when a large piece of an intercepted rocket fell on him in Jericho.
While IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari said most of the 190 ballistic missiles fired from Iran were intercepted, he acknowledged that there were several impacts in central and southern Israel.
According to the Axios news outlet, the impacts occurred near an Air Force base in southern Israel – mostly likely Nevatim, home to the IAF’s advanced F-35 squadron – as well as in the area of the IDF’s Intelligence base Glilot and the nearby Mossad headquarters.
One military official reported that none of the missiles directly hit the Glilot compound, according to Axios. Israeli TV channels showed footage of a large crater in a nearby open area.
In the town of Gedera, near the Tel Nof airbase, a school suffered a direct hit and was badly damaged. IDF Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo, the Home Front Command chief, visited the site during the night to inspect the damage.
“Just to think that a few hours ago there were hundreds of students there, learning about Rosh Hashanah. A huge miracle happened to us,” the director of the school’s network, Rabbi Eliyahu Krichevsky, told Channel 7.
On Wednesday morning, the municipality of Hod Hasharon, a town adjacent to the Glilot compound, announced that around 100 homes were damaged in the assault, some of them suffering extensive damage.
“Tens of additional homes were affected on the periphery. This is a very significant damage,” said Hod Hasharon mayor, Amir Kochavi.
“Residents of the city followed safety instructions and thus avoided bodily harm despite the shrapnel scattering. The municipality and emergency teams quickly isolated the areas where the fragments of the interceptions landed and safely evacuated them. The municipality is ready to continue working with the emergency and welfare forces to respond to any need. Adhering to Home Front Command guidelines saves lives,” he stressed.
Irit Zabari told Ynet News that her home in Hod Hasharon was damaged by a shrapnel fragment that landed next to her doorstep.
“Since we don’t have an emergency room at home and my husband is a disabled person who has trouble moving to the nearby municipal shelter, we stayed in an inner room in the apartment,” Zabari said.
“I immediately called the municipal hotline. The security teams quickly arrived at the scene and removed the shrapnel. A few minutes passed from the alarm to the fall. Please stay in the protected areas ten minutes after the alarms end, this is a life-saving instruction,” she added.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.