Israel suffers worst casualty toll as Iranian missile strike kills 9 in Beit Shemesh

An Iranian missile strike killed at least nine people in central Israel on Sunday afternoon, the worst casualty toll in the country after two days of conflict with Iran

Hours after the direct hit on a residential district in Beit Shemesh, about 18 miles west of Jerusalem, dozens of military personnel were searching through the debris.

As the sun was setting, rescue workers said several people were still missing.


The Israeli military and the country's ambulance service said an Iranian missile had caused the widespread destruction. It was not immediately clear what the target of the strike was, but the Israeli military accused Iran of aiming at civilians.

Israel's police chief, Danny Levy, appealed for people to call a special help line to report the names of anyone they know who has not been accounted for.

The attack occurred after Ali Larijani, Iran's top national security official, wrote in a post on social media that Iran would hit Israel and the United States "with a force that they have never experienced," in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.

Some of those killed in Beit Shemesh had been sheltering in a communal bunker beneath a makeshift synagogue that suffered a direct hit, according to officials and paramedics at the scene. Others were found out in the open, said Zeev Druck, a spokesperson for ZAKA, an Israeli organization that recovers bodies. He said he was part of the team identifying bodies at the scene. Many of them were charred, he said.

In addition to the deaths, the ambulance service said that at least 46 people had been injured and were evacuated to hospitals.

At least two Israeli interceptors were fired in an attempt to stop the Iranian missile that struck Beit Shemesh, according to witness videos obtained by The New York Times and posts on social media.

Israel has successfully intercepted many Iranian missiles. But the strike on Beit Shemesh showed that the country's air defenses were not hermetic, the chief military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said. It also showed that bomb shelters were not always able to withstand a direct hit by missiles carrying half a ton of explosives, such as this one, according to Israeli officials.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.