Israeli rescuers search for missing in building strike, two dead

HAIFA: Israeli firefighters were searching for two missing people in the rubble of a residential building in the northern city of Haifa after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed two others, authorities said Monday.

The direct hit on a seven-storey building tore through sections of the structure which has partially collapsed, the military and rescue services said.

AFP footage showed rescuers using flashlights to search through rubble and scattered concrete blocks.

The strike took place minutes after the military warned it had detected a new round of missiles fired from Iran at around 1500 GMT.

Elad Edri, chief of staff of Israel’s Home Front Command, said that four people were missing.

“We have a major destruction site,” he said in a video statement.

Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said later that two of the four people trapped under the rubble had been found dead.

The building was hit by a “direct impact of a missile”, a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming it was fired from Iran.

Elderly man, baby wounded

Israel’s emergency service, Magen David Adom, said four people were wounded in the strike, including a 10-month-old baby who suffered a head injury.

An 82-year-old man was also in a “serious condition”, MDA said. A hospital later said he was stable.

He was “wounded by a heavy object and the blast”, the MDA said, adding that the other three suffered shrapnel and blast injuries.

Dozens of Israeli security and members of rescue forces were deployed at the site of the strike, an AFP correspondent reported.

Images and footage show smoke rising from the remains of a flattened building in a densely populated area, and stretchers laid on the road by rescuers for casualties.

Iran has fired missiles daily at Israel since February 28, in retaliation to joint US-Israeli attacks on the country that has killed several top Iranian leaders, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and US airstrikes have attacked a number of Iran’s missile production sites and also nuclear facilities.