Israel: “Then I heard the bang again, the same bang”

The road to his house is covered in dust; the blast wave crushed parked cars and smashed windows all along the street. Eli Bachar, 40, stands at the barrier with an empty stroller, looking at his neighbor's destroyed house and waiting for rescuers. They're looking for his dog.

During the night leading up to Saturday, Iran repeatedly launched rockets into Israel . This was in response to the Israeli army's attacks on "senior military commanders, leading nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime's main uranium enrichment facility," and the Iranian missile arsenal, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently explained. Most of the Iranian missiles were intercepted by the Israeli air defense system, but some hit, as here in this Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.

Eli Bachar lives with his family in one of the new buildings here. They were in the shelter of their apartment with their baby and two-year-old when the first rockets hit. The explosion was deafening, he says, and when he opened the door and saw the chaos in his apartment, he realized they had to leave. They left their dog behind, who had hidden in fear.

They spent the night with his wife's parents in Rishon LeZion. Of all places. Because later that night, another rocket hit there. "Then I heard the bang again, the same bang," he says, looking at his neighbor's house. It has collapsed, steel beams and cables are sticking out, the walls are missing. A woman died here last night, Bachar says.

At least three people were killed by rocket hits in Israel, and around 80 were injured, according to media reports. Near the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank, five people, including three children, were also injured by falling debris, according to Palestinian sources. In Rishon LeZion, where Eli Bachar and his family spent the night, several people were trapped in a hit house, media reports say, and had to be rescued by firefighters, including a three-month-old baby.

Israel attacks Iran's gas and oil production facilities for the first time. Iran responds with rocket fire. The nuclear talks between Iran and the United States scheduled for Sunday are canceled.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Iran and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with severe consequences if they continue to attack civilians: "If Khamenei continues to fire rockets at the Israeli civilian population, Tehran will burn," Katz said.

The attacks in Iran also cost lives; according to Iranian sources, 78 people were killed and 320 injured on the first night of the Israeli attacks alone. New explosions were also reported on Saturday night, including in Tehran.

In Ramat Gan, Bachar says he fundamentally supports Israel's war against Iran. He believes it is not the people there, but the regime against which the Israeli army is rightfully fighting. The fact that Israel now has to expect retaliation is simply part of it. The state, he says, will take care of repairing the damage.

A group of helpers approaches him, accompanied by photographers wearing steel helmets, their lenses aimed at a small, trembling dog. Bachar takes it in his arms, holds the wriggling animal tightly, and kisses its fur. When the dog slowly calms down, he places it in the stroller. Then he lights a cigarette.

Sirens repeatedly wail in Israel during the night. According to the army, hundreds of rockets and drones fired at Israel on four separate occasions were intercepted. The Israeli defense industry claims to have continuously developed its air surveillance and defense technology over the past two years, adapting it to the volume of missiles reaching Israel. However, the military says its air defense system is not perfect.

Israel has been fighting the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Houthi militia in Yemen since an attack on the country on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped. Iran attacked the country twice with rockets last year—but never on this scale.

Despite everything, Eli Bachar and his family will stay with his in-laws for now, he says, and wait to see where this new war leads. Because Israel continues its attacks on Iran this Saturday.