**Nine killed as Iranian missile destroys synagogue and damages shelter in Beit Shemesh**
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — An Iranian ballistic missile struck a residential neighborhood in Beit Shemesh on Sunday afternoon, killing nine people and injuring more than 40 others in what Israeli officials described as the deadliest single missile impact in Israel during the current phase of fighting with Iran.
The missile hit the Ramat Lehi area west of Jerusalem after air-raid sirens sounded across central Israel. The blast destroyed the Tiferet Israel synagogue, inflicted heavy damage on a public bomb shelter beneath it and wrecked nearby homes, emergency services and Israeli authorities said. Rescuers later worked through shattered concrete, twisted metal and a wide debris field as helicopters and search-and-rescue teams were sent to the scene.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, initially reported eight deaths at the site and said 28 injured people had been taken to hospitals. The death toll later rose to nine. Hospitals in Jerusalem, including Shaare Zedek and Hadassah, treated victims that included children; some were listed in serious or moderate condition.
The Israel Defense Forces said air-defense systems had been activated but failed to intercept the incoming missile. Officials said the projectile carried an estimated 500-kilogram warhead and scored a direct hit. The Israeli Air Force opened an investigation into the interception failure. The Home Front Command separately examined the shelter’s condition and performance.
**Shelter and impact under scrutiny**
The strike immediately raised questions about civil defense. Jerusalem District Police Chief Avshalom Peled said early on that most of those killed were believed to have been inside the public shelter. Later reporting painted a more complicated picture. An investigation cited by Israeli media found that only two of the nine dead were inside the shelter at the moment of impact, one person was at the entrance, and six others were outside. About 30 people were reported to have been inside the shelter; most survived.
Home Front Command officials said the shelter met required safety standards. Military and civilian authorities have continued to urge residents to enter protected spaces when alerts sound, while acknowledging that no public shelter can be assumed to withstand every direct ballistic-missile strike.
Amnesty International later said the attack should be investigated as a possible war crime, arguing there was no apparent military target in the immediate vicinity and that the weapon used was highly inaccurate. Israeli officials have framed the strike as part of a broader Iranian barrage against Israeli territory.
**The nine victims**
Authorities gradually released the names of those killed. They included three teenage siblings — Yaakov Biton, Avigail Biton and Sara Biton — as well as 16-year-old Gabriel Revah. Also killed were Oren Katz, 46; Sara Elimelech, 67, and her daughter Ronit Elimelech, 45, a volunteer with United Hatzalah; and Bruria Cohen, 76, and her son Yossi Cohen, 41.
Ronit Elimelech had gone to the public shelter with family members after sirens sounded. Paramedics later found her medical vest and kit in the rubble. Neighbors described a previously quiet street reduced to broken glass, collapsed walls and scattered wreckage.
The Beit Shemesh strike was compared with the deadliest Israeli civilian toll from an earlier 12-day exchange with Iran in June 2025, when a missile that hit an apartment building in Bat Yam also killed nine people.
**Wider conflict**
The attack occurred as Israel and Iran traded missile fire, air strikes and air-defense operations, raising fears of further escalation across the region. For residents of central Israeli cities, the war has meant repeated alerts and hurried dashes to shelters. Officials said most incoming missiles in the same period were intercepted, but the Beit Shemesh impact showed the cost when one gets through.
Investigators are still examining why the missile was not stopped, how the shelter performed under a direct hit and the full extent of structural damage. Emergency services treated the wounded, while local authorities began assessing homes that were no longer habitable.
The nine deaths have left a religious community west of Jerusalem in mourning. For the families, the larger military confrontation has narrowed to a more immediate reality: funerals, hospital vigils and the work of recovering from a strike that turned a residential street into a disaster site.
