JERUSALEM: Israel’s firefighting service said its teams were responding to several “major” incidents resulting from an Iranian missile attack, including efforts to rescue people trapped in a high-rise building.
“Firefighting crews are handling several major incidents, mainly in the Dan region” around Tel Aviv, a statement said, adding that “firefighters are working in a high-rise building to rescue trapped individuals and extinguish a fire, as well as responding to two additional destruction sites.”
AFP footage from central Tel Aviv showed fire and smoke rising from a condo tower, a large hole ripped open by an explosion at its base.
After Israel targeted military and nuclear sites across Iran, the Islamic Republic sent a fleet of drones, followed by two salvoes of missiles.
“In both series, less than 100 missiles were fired, most of which were intercepted by air defense systems”, Israel’s military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a statement.
“There are a limited number of hits on buildings, some from shrapnel from the interception”, he added.
Immediately after the first salvo, a thick plume of smoke billowed over the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv, an AFP journalist reported.
A residential building next to the defence ministry in Tel Aviv was also struck.
Resident Chen Gabizon, 30, told AFP he ran to the building’s underground shelter after receiving an alert notification.
“After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place”, he said, adding he would stay with family or at a hotel for a while.
AFPTV images of the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan showed a street littered with debris of damaged nearby buildings whose facades were torn by a missile’s blast.
First responders worked to remove a dozen vehicles destroyed by bits of fallen concrete, metal bars and wooden planks from a destroyed residential building.
A spokesman for Israel’s first responders agency, the Magen David Adom, said on private Israeli television channel 12 that 21 people were injured by the missiles, including two in serious condition.
