Orange-vested emergency workers were clambering over rubble on Sunday morning in the central Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam in the wake of an Iranian missile strike that killed at least six people and wounded scores of others.
Paramedics were still trying to save three people who were still trapped under debris, according to the Israeli military, hours after the missile evaded Israel’s air defenses. Four people remained unaccounted for, the military said.
Most of those confirmed dead were women and children, according to the authorities, although they have yet to publicly name the victims. The scenes were replicated across northern and central Israel after a long night of Iranian missile attacks.
Many Israelis have a certain nonchalance about missile fire, the product of both near-constant rocket attacks and the country’s sophisticated aerial defenses. But the destructive attacks in Bat Yam and elsewhere overnight — in which 10 people were confirmed killed — underscored how Israel’s current escalation with heavily armed Iran differs from fighting armed paramilitaries like Hamas and Hezbollah.
In Rehovot, another city south of Tel Aviv, debris from the overnight attack filled the streets. Bloodstained bandages and white surgical gloves lay by a roadside bench. Rescue workers picked through shattered glass, searching for survivors.
“Is there anyone inside?” a police officer shouted, peering into a shop damaged by the strikes.
In Bat Yam, hundreds of residents who had evacuated their homes near the blast site — many of which were left uninhabitable by the explosion — gathered at a nearby school to wait for officials to tell them where to go.
Like many Israelis, they had been ordered to go to fortified bomb shelters when the Israeli military announced early on Sunday morning that Iran had fired ballistic missiles at Israeli territory.
One resident at the school, Michael Guberman, 22, was staying with his father in Bat Yam when an Iranian missile struck, half-destroying the building. They had gone to a shared bomb shelter on the sixth floor after air raid sirens started, he said.
The sirens had died down when suddenly, everything shook.
“There was a huge explosion,” said Mr. Guberman, clutching their pet dog. “The door flew off its hinges.”
The shelter was suddenly dark, full of choking dust and the screams of people inside, Mr. Guberman recalled. Much of the multistory apartment building had been destroyed, he said.
Paramedics arrived to help them navigate, slowly, out of the damaged building. In the light from emergency workers’ flashlights, Mr. Guberman said he could see blood on the floor.
“I still can’t believe that this was real, that this happened,” he said. “It was like a movie.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the scene in Bat Yam on Sunday afternoon flanked by aides. He gave a brief statement arguing that the Iranian missile attack strengthened his justification for the Israeli government’s offensive launched against Iran on Friday: that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were an existential threat.
“That is why we have embarked on a war of salvation against a double threat of annihilation,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
The blast blew out the windows in the apartment in Bat Yam where Eldad Albow, a 47-year-old father of two young girls, lived with his family. City officials later told them that the building was no longer safe to live in, leaving them uncertain about their next steps.
Speaking in the school gymnasium as he waited to hear where his family would go next, Mr. Albow said his two daughters were still in shock from the explosion.
Mr. Albow said he supported attacking Iran and wanted the government to act even more aggressively against Tehran’s nuclear program. But he said if Israel was unable to get the United States to join its campaign — which could help the Israeli Air Force destroy some of the best-guarded Iranian sites — the government should consider finding an exit.
“It might be better to say at that point: We both got blows in, let’s wrap it up,” he said. “Otherwise we’re in for even crazier and more difficult days.”
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
Gabby Sobelman is a reporter and researcher for The Times, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs, based in Rehovot, Israel.
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