Five people were wounded in central Israel on Monday night, one of them seriously, by a rocket launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group.
A 54-year-old woman was listed as being in serious condition, while four other people sustained moderate to light wounds, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency response group. All five victims were evacuated to Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah.
“Following the alerts that were activated a short time ago in the center of the country, the air force intercepted one launch,” the Israel Defense Forces stated. “A fall was detected, apparently originating from interception fragments.”
The military later clarified that according to a preliminary investigation, a surface-to-surface missile had broken into several pieces after being intercepted at high altitude.
“As a result of the interception, part of the missile hit the ground and caused damage and casualties,” the IDF continued, adding that incident remains under investigation.
The launch triggered sirens throughout the larger Tel Aviv metropolitan area and the country’s coastal plain, sending millions running for shelter, according to the army’s Home Front Command.
A missile fragment impact caused a fire outside of the Ayalon Mall in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
“Police forces are working to isolate the impact scenes and evacuate the wounded. We ask the public to stay away from impact sites and obey instructions of police officers,” the Israel Police stated, warning that there was a danger of buildings collapsing.
The municipality of Bnei Brak, which borders Ramat Gan, stated that Ben-Gurion Street had been closed to traffic due to glass fragments on the road. It called on the public to avoid the area.
A video posted to social media by Israel Hayom showed a man in Bnei Brak running into the road during the sirens and being hit by a car.
Take-offs and landings were briefly suspended at Ben-Gurion International Airport due to the attack, according to Hebrew media reports.
In response to the attack, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee tweeted, “Israel is under attack by Iran-backed terrorist groups hellbent on murdering Israelis and destroying the Jewish state. America must stand with Israel and ensure our ally has the weapons it needs to fight and win this war.”
At the same time as the missile attack on Tel Aviv, the Israeli Air Force stated that it had shot down a Hezbollah suicide drone launched at the Haifa area.
Earlier on Monday evening, an Israeli civilian was killed and 30 were wounded when a Hezbollah rocket hit a three-story building in the northern city of Shfar’am.
The fatality was identified as Safaa Awad, a local educator and a mother of four.
Among the wounded were a four-year-old boy and a 21-year-old woman in serious condition, according to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital.
According to a security officer cited by Israel’s Channel 12 News, Awad had been in a reinforced shelter at the time of the impact. The door had been blown off its hinges, and Awad was found inside with “severe” shrapnel injuries, according to the report.
