Four Feared Trapped After Iranian Missile Hits Haifa Building - Israel Security
A missile fired from Iran struck a residential building in Haifa on Sunday, causing a fire, multiple injuries, and trapping at least four people inside, while leaving the seven-story structure at risk of collapse.
An 82-year-old man was rescued in serious condition, and seven others suffered minor injuries. Firefighters said the missile did not explode, but the building remains unstable. The fire broke out after a gas balloon exploded, and rescue teams are working to free four people trapped inside, whose condition is unknown.
Home Front Command Chief Shai Klapper said the advanced rescue operations are underway. Carmel District Police Chief Boaz Smuka said the trapped include a couple in their 60s, their son, and possibly a foreign worker. "No one is answering from this family; we hope to locate them soon," he said.
A local Home Front Command officer clarified that the family members were not found in the building's shelter. A police deputy district commander added that they were likely on the building's bottom floor when the missile hit. The police said that the area's topography of terraced houses built on a slope makes access to engineering equipment difficult.
Shira, a resident of the building, said that the missing family members live on the same level as the shelter, "and this is the floor that was damaged the most." She added that she was in the shelter. "By a miracle, we got out okay," adding that it was a "matter of centimeters."
According to her, many of the building's residents do not go down to the shelter when sirens sound. "There are many who don't go down, or who go down sometimes, or who only go down after there's a scary boom," she described.
Ariel and Noam, 17-year-old brothers who live near the building that was hit, described the incident: "There was a crazy boom. The house shook as if it had fallen here," Noam said.
Ariel added: "We were in the shelter, we immediately realized that something bad had happened."
Anat Stupmacher, who lives next door to the building, said that all the windows in her house were shattered. "We can't breathe in our house because of the fire. They evacuated us, and now we're trying to understand where to go," she said.
The direct hit in Haifa is the second on Sunday, after an Iranian missile hit the Neot Hovav industrial zone in southern Israel, which has been repeatedly struck in recent weeks.
In addition, fire services reported a drone struck a house in a northern Israeli town near Acre; no casualties were reported.