A look at the giant Iranian missile hulls scattered across Israel and the West Bank
Meters long and potentially toxic, fragments of intercepted ballistic missiles now dot the landscape across the Holy Land, scarring the backyards of Israelis and Palestinians alike
Some are the size of small trucks, and they’ve come crashing to the ground almost daily for a month — littering school yards, roadsides and hilltops with visceral remnants of a Middle East at war.
Across Israel and the West Bank, massive chunks of Iranian ballistic missiles have slammed to the earth after being shot out of the sky by Israeli air defense systems.
Near the Palestinian city of Nablus, a young girl posed with a missile fragment that smashed into an olive tree grove.
In an Israeli school in a West Bank settlement, children climbed on a huge metal missile case that fell in their playground.
Nearly a month after Israel and the US launched their joint war on Iran, Israelis and Palestinians have become used to frequent official warnings to stay away from missile fragments, which could contain unexploded ordnance or toxic materials.
“These objects may appear harmless at first glance, but can pose a risk of explosion and shrapnel,” Magen David Adom emergency service said on Friday.
At least 270 missile fragments have fallen across the West Bank, the majority near Ramallah, with others landing near Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Salfit, according to figures issued by the Palestinian Authority’s civil defense.
It cooperates with police to move missile fragments to secure locations, said civil defense spokesperson Nael Azza. At least three Palestinians had been arrested for trying to sell off missile fragments as scrap metal, he said.
Since the beginning of the war, movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli military on the West Bank, combined with a spike in extremist Jewish settler violence, have delayed emergency response efforts in the West Bank, Azza said.
Lahjat Hamaj, 59, a resident of the Palestinian village of Beitin near Ramallah, where a missile fragment had fallen recently, said that it took about two hours for emergency response teams to reach them.
“When this missile [fragment] fell, the sound was strong across the whole town,” said Hamaj.
Israel says its West Bank restrictions since the start of the war are aimed at reducing threats to troops deployed in the area.
More than 400 ballistic missiles have been launched from Iran at Israel since the start of the war, with the military reporting an interception rate of 92 percent of attacks heading for populated areas and key infrastructure.
In all, at least eight missiles carrying conventional warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives have struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage in six cases. There have also been more than 30 incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with over 150 separate impact sites.
Missiles launched from Iran and Lebanon toward Israel have killed 18 people in Israel, according to Israel’s ambulance service. Four Palestinian women were killed in the West Bank as a result of missile attacks, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Most Israelis have access to bomb shelters that protect them from cluster munitions and falling debris, but virtually no such shelters exist for Palestinians in the West Bank.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.