Iran fired several salvos of missiles at Israel on Monday, with impacts damaging homes and an apparent cluster bomb injuring one person in the central region of the country.
The Iranians launched five barrages at Israel after midnight and into the afternoon. Though air defense systems worked to shoot down the missiles, some warheads impacted on residential areas, as did debris and fragments from interceptions.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said it launched extensive strikes on Iran, destroying slain former supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s private jet, and a space research center.
The Iranian attacks on Israel set off sirens in the north, central, and southern regions, and in two attacks, also in Jerusalem.
Multiple impact sites were reported across central Israel, including a home in Rishon Lezion. On Thursday afternoon, a man in Jerusalem was lightly wounded after touching a missile fragment, and there was damage to several buildings from falling fragments.
The Fire and Rescue service said a large chunk from an intercepted missile struck a home in East Jerusalem, causing damage. Other fragments landed near the National Library, which is close to the Knesset, and in the Old City, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Lir Itzik, 30, whose home was hit in Rishon Lezion, told Hebrew media that she had entered a shelter before a warhead hit the location.
After the sirens went off, she went to the shelter, shared with the neighbors, taking her dog with her.
“The siren ended, there were booms (apparently from missile intercepts),” Itzik said. “Suddenly, there was a whistle and a really strong explosion. The whole shelter went white, I couldn’t see where to go, and I didn’t know if it was at all possible to open the door. I didn’t know if the home was on fire, I didn’t know anything.”
Itzik telephoned her father and alerted the fire and rescue services.
Her father, Yaron, arrived first, and gave the door a really hard push, she said. “I pushed from the other side.”
Between them, she said, they managed to open the door enough that she could squeeze out.
Itzik said that the walls of the home had collapsed onto the safe room door.
“I inhaled a lot of dust, and I also fell over as I was coming out of the shelter because of debris,” she said.
Itzik was taken to the Shamir Medical Center for treatment.
President Isaac Herzog visited the site of the missile impact on Monday.
“Our enemies in Iran are trying, in a cowardly way, to harm citizens in the heart of a peaceful residential neighborhood. We will overcome these challenges and defeat our enemies,” he said.
Herzog urged Israelis to follow instructions from the IDF Home Front as “they save lives,” an apparent reference to several people who have been injured when they did not enter secure locations during previous missile attacks.
During the attacks, another warhead hit a home in the central region town of Shoham, causing serious damage, while a third impacted on Route 431, forcing the closure of one lane.
The attacks came as the Israeli Air Force launched a new wave of “extensive” airstrikes in Tehran, Shiraz, and Tabriz, the IDF announced.
The military said the strikes were targeting Iranian regime infrastructure sites.
Among the targets hit and destroyed was an Iranian space facility in Tehran that was used by the regime to develop “capabilities for attacking satellites.”
The site was used to develop various military space programs, including the Chamran-1 satellite, as well as “capabilities to strike satellites, posing a threat to the State of Israel’s satellites and to space assets of other countries around the world,” the military said.
The military released images showing the site before and after the strike
Earlier, the military said the IAF struck and destroyed Khamenei’s aircraft at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport overnight
The IDF said the plane had been used by Khamenei and other top Iranian officials “to advance military procurement and manage relations with axis countries through domestic and international flights.”
The military added that the destruction of the “strategic asset” is a blow to Iran’s “coordination capabilities” with proxy groups, its “building of military power, and the regime’s rehabilitation capabilities.”
Khamenei and 40 other top Iranian figures were killed in the opening strikes of a joint US-Israeli air campaign against Iran that began on February 28. Iran has responded by firing missiles at countries hosting US bases in the Middle East, and Israel.
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