Four members of Israeli family killed by Iranian missile identified

The four members of an Israeli family killed in an Iranian missile attack on the northern city of Haifa were identified late Monday.

Vladimir Gershovitz, 73, Lena Ostrovsky Gershovitz, 68, their only son, Dimitri (Dima) Gershovitz, 42, and his wife, Lucille-Jane, 29, died when an Iranian missile struck the elderly couple’s apartment building on Sunday evening, causing the upper floors to collapse.

Their bodies were recovered from the wreckage after an overnight search operation that rescue officials described as the most difficult of the war, with the final body recovered 18 hours after the attack.

Israel’s air defenses failed to intercept the missile, whose warhead struck the building, which did not have a bomb shelter.

Iran has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel since the war began on Feb. 28. At least 23 people have been killed in Israel by missile and rocket fire from Iran and Lebanon.

Family tragedy

Vladimir Gershovitz, a retired tech expert, had been discharged from the hospital earlier in the day, hours before the missile struck his home. Dmitri, a software engineer, and Lucille-Jane, a kindergarten teacher originally from the Philippines, had driven to Haifa from their home in Herzliya to bring him home.

Lena Ostrovsky was a voice coach and longtime teacher at the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in Jerusalem, widely regarded as a leading figure in the theater community.

The family had taken shelter in the building’s stairwell when the air-raid siren sounded, rescue officials said, as it was difficult for the elderly couple to reach the nearest bomb shelter in time.

“This beautiful family was wiped out in a heinous missile attack by the Iranian regime,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X on Monday. “This murderous regime must be stopped.”