Nine people were killed, and around 40 others were injured on Sunday, March 1, after an IRGC missile directly hit and destroyed a synagogue and a public bomb shelter underneath it in Beit Shemesh, outside of Jerusalem. Other surrounding houses and nearby buildings were also damaged. The victims are named as Yaakov, Avigail, and Sara Biton, who were teenage siblings, Ronit Elimelech, a United Hatzalah volunteer, and her mother, Sara, Oren Katz, Gavriel Baruch Ravach, and Bruria and Yosef Cohen, a mother and son. Yosef Cohen was known locally for his dedication to his mother. At the same time, the father of Gavriel Baruch Ravach had previously donated funds to and was involved in the building that once housed the synagogue.
Ronit Elimelech had been at her parents’ house in Beit Shemesh with her three children when they entered the public shelter as the sirens went off. First responders rescued two of her children and transported them to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, and her third child was unharmed. Her father, and Sara’s husband, was also found safe. Ronut Elimelech was praised by United Hatzalah founder and president Eli Beer in a post on X. Beer also shared the story of how she came to volunteer at the request of her autistic son, Itamar, on his 11th birthday.
In Tel Aviv, a 32-year-old Filipino woman, Mary Anne Velazquez de Vera, was killed on Saturday night, February 28, after a direct hit on a residential building by a complete IRGC ballistic missile that allegedly weighed several hundred kilograms. The building that was hit was an older building without its own safe rooms, and many individuals had to run to nearby public bomb shelters. Velazquez did not manage to enter a shelter in time. Velazquez had been working as a caregiver and was pronounced dead on the way to the hospital. The elderly woman she had been caring for was rescued alive. Twenty-seven others were injured, with two in moderate condition. First responders rescued a two-month-old baby and his older sister, and their parents were evacuated shortly after.
The Israel Daily News went to the scene of the Tel Aviv missile attack annd spoke to a woman who lives near the building that was hit. She recounted her experience during the first war with Iran in June, and said she is “feeling the same trauma.” The woman later concluded: “You know, I just, I feel that everything that we’re doing right now is very correct. I hope it’s going to be very short and a beginning of a new era. This is what I can really hope.”
The Israel Daily News sends our heartfelt condolences to the victims, families and communities of the attacks on Beit Shemesh and Tel Aviv.
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