It was late at night when an Iranian cluster bomb flew through the ceiling of an elderly couple's apartment in central Israel and exploded in their tiny living room, killing them both.
The path of the bomb was still clearly mapped onto the ash-covered debris left behind. A large hole in the ceiling of their top-floor apartment marked where it punched through, forcing broken concrete and metal rods inwards.
Shrapnel holes across the back walls showed the force of the explosion, which destroyed the front of the apartment - leaving it open to the street outside.
Inside, a walking frame lay upended on the floor under the ash-covered furniture and rubble.
We heard three noisy interceptions, but on the fourth one, we knew it was our house, said Sigal Amir, who lives next door and was sheltering in her safe room when the explosion hit.
Sigal recounted, There was a massive boom and I felt a pain in my ear from the blast. The neighbours live five metres from us – their door was blown off and their house was full of dust like snow. The couple had not been in their shelter at the time of the blast due to mobility issues.
Deaths from Iran's daily missile attacks have been rare in Israel, with air defenses intercepting most of them. However, cluster bombs disperse over a wide area and are much harder to defend against.
Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani remarked, You can see the entry point of the rocket that flew all the way from Iran in a huge missile, and broke into dozens of pieces. We had dozens of impact points like this in central Israel. He emphasized that while Israel managed to intercept the missiles carrying cluster bombs, each contained 20 to 80 munitions that were very difficult to stop.
As the conflict rages on, the psychological toll on residents is evident. Sigal expressed a sense of hopelessness: In the last days I'm losing hope a little bit. I feel there's no end to it, there's no direction, we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
This escalation echoes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bold proclamations about military supremacy, even as the war widens with the involvement of Hezbollah and significant civilian casualties reported.
Overall, the situation remains volatile, with the prospect of ongoing conflict raising questions about Israel's military strategies and the impact on its civilian population.
