At least three Palestinians were killed and several others wounded during an Iranian missile attack that damaged a makeshift beauty parlor in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday night, Palestinian officials and local residents said.
The strike hit a caravan that had been converted into a hair salon in the town of Beit Awwa, in the southern part of the territory. The Israeli military blamed the attack on an Iranian missile, while Palestinian officials said the damage was caused by an errant Israeli aerial defense interceptor.
Either way, it was one of the deadlier Iranian attacks on Israel since the American-Israeli war with Iran began in late February and the first to kill Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society, whose paramedics responded, said all the victims were women, though none had been publicly identified.
The structure had been full of women getting their hair done ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, which celebrates the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to the mayor of Beit Awwa, who headed to the impact site after the blast.
Israelis often have access to fortified bomb shelters, either in their homes or in nearby public buildings. But Palestinians in the West Bank have almost no recourse in the face of falling missiles, making them exceptionally vulnerable.
“We can hear the air-raid sirens going off” in nearby Israeli communities, said Abdullah Sweity, a resident of Beit Awwa. “But we have no safe place to go.”
Iran has fired waves of ballistic missiles and drones at Israel and U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf to retaliate for the Israeli-American military campaign. At least 14 people have been killed in Israel, all of them civilians, in the attacks, according to the Israeli authorities.
It is unclear how many people have been killed in Iran since the war began on Feb. 28. A week ago, Iran’s U.N. representative told the Security Council that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed. No official updates have been released since.
Palestinian towns in the West Bank are unlikely targets for Iranian missiles, which more often trigger sirens in Israeli cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa. Iranian officials say they aim at Israeli targets.
In practice, however, Iran has repeatedly fired unguided cluster munitions that indiscriminately disperse smaller bomblets over civilian areas. Israeli interceptors can also tear apart incoming Iranian ballistic missiles in midair, scattering potentially dangerous shrapnel over a wide radius.
Israeli and Palestinian officials offered contradictory explanations for what had caused the deadly blast at the salon.
Israel’s military said one of the Iranian cluster missiles had likely landed there, causing the casualties. In contrast, the Palestinian Authority’s civil defense agency stated that an Israeli interceptor had struck the site instead.
Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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