It was late at night when an Iranian cluster bomb flew through the ceiling of an elderly couple's apartment in central Israel and exploded in their tiny living room, killing them both.
The path of the bomb was still clearly mapped onto the ash-covered debris left behind. A large hole in the ceiling of their top-floor apartment marked where it punched through, forcing broken concrete and metal rods inwards.
Shrapnel holes across the back walls showed the force of the explosion, which destroyed the front of the apartment - leaving it open to the street outside.
Inside, a walking frame lay upended on the floor under the ash-covered furniture and rubble. We heard three noisy interceptions, but on the fourth one, we knew it was our house, said Sigal Amir, who lives next door and was sheltering in her safe room when the explosion hit.
There was a massive boom and I felt a pain in my ear from the blast, she said. The neighbours live five metres from us – their door was blown off and their house was full of dust like snow.
She stated that the couple had not been in the shelter when the bomb hit as one of them had mobility issues.
Deaths from Iran's daily missile attacks have been rare in Israel, with air defences intercepting most of them. But cluster bombs disperse over a wide area and are much harder to defend against, even when the missile carrying them is shot down. As the war has gone on, Iran has shifted to using more of them.
Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani mentioned that each missile carries 20 to 80 munitions, which are very difficult to stop. During a visit to the site, another alarm sounded, warning of incoming missiles, prompting nearby residents to duck into safe rooms as they grappled with both the terror and uncertainty of ongoing conflict.
While the military reports that relatively few have died from missile strikes (only fourteen so far), the psychological toll on the community is profound. To be honest, in the last days I'm losing hope a little bit, Sigal reflected, voicing a sense of despair and uncertainty about when this ordeal may end.
The conflict, described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a pivotal struggle against regional adversaries, has yet to see a resolve and raises the stakes for local residents trying to adjust to life under constant threat.
The path of the bomb was still clearly mapped onto the ash-covered debris left behind. A large hole in the ceiling of their top-floor apartment marked where it punched through, forcing broken concrete and metal rods inwards.
Shrapnel holes across the back walls showed the force of the explosion, which destroyed the front of the apartment - leaving it open to the street outside.
Inside, a walking frame lay upended on the floor under the ash-covered furniture and rubble. We heard three noisy interceptions, but on the fourth one, we knew it was our house, said Sigal Amir, who lives next door and was sheltering in her safe room when the explosion hit.
There was a massive boom and I felt a pain in my ear from the blast, she said. The neighbours live five metres from us – their door was blown off and their house was full of dust like snow.
She stated that the couple had not been in the shelter when the bomb hit as one of them had mobility issues.
Deaths from Iran's daily missile attacks have been rare in Israel, with air defences intercepting most of them. But cluster bombs disperse over a wide area and are much harder to defend against, even when the missile carrying them is shot down. As the war has gone on, Iran has shifted to using more of them.
Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani mentioned that each missile carries 20 to 80 munitions, which are very difficult to stop. During a visit to the site, another alarm sounded, warning of incoming missiles, prompting nearby residents to duck into safe rooms as they grappled with both the terror and uncertainty of ongoing conflict.
While the military reports that relatively few have died from missile strikes (only fourteen so far), the psychological toll on the community is profound. To be honest, in the last days I'm losing hope a little bit, Sigal reflected, voicing a sense of despair and uncertainty about when this ordeal may end.
The conflict, described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a pivotal struggle against regional adversaries, has yet to see a resolve and raises the stakes for local residents trying to adjust to life under constant threat.
