Cities work to survey damaged buildings and support thousands evacuated to hotels
In central Israel, where Iranian missiles have caused the largest loss of life and property, community and social workers fan out to help with everything, from basic supplies to filing paperwork
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Local authorities across central and northern Israel continued to work Wednesday to survey damaged buildings and to support the thousands of residents evacuated to dozens of hotels following Iranian ballistic missile attacks that damaged or destroyed their homes.
Since Israel launched its surprise offensive against Iran early Friday, Tehran has launched over 400 missiles and some 1,000 drones at Israel, with the former killing 24 people and injuring more than 500 (none of the drones have hit). One person is still missing but feared dead in the central city of Bat Yam.
The damage has been concentrated mainly in central Israeli cities, as follows:
Ramat Gan
Two missiles have hit Ramat Gan, killing one person and injuring 11, one of them critically. Nearly 1,000 affected residents have been evacuated to hotels following the impacts, among them more than 300 children, with more evacuees thought to have gone to friends and family, a spokesman for the municipality said.
Demolition orders were issued Tuesday for two buildings. Several more have been declared unfit for habitation, and dozens need repairs, the spokesman said.
Rishon Lezion
In Rishon Lezion, three people were killed and dozens wounded by two missile landings. Fifty buildings were heavily damaged, and more than 150 were slightly damaged, a spokeswoman for the city said. Four to six buildings will need to be demolished, and more than 200 will require renovation.
Approximately 350 families are currently staying in two hotels in Tel Aviv and Rehovot, with dozens more having relocated to stay with family or friends.
The spokeswoman added that the council had helped some 1,000 residents in the affected neighborhood in arranging property damage surveys, applying for support from the National Insurance Institute, and securing basic equipment and shopping vouchers. In one case, it located an optician who could immediately assist a six-year-old boy whose glasses had been broken.
Bat Yam
In Bat Yam, nine people in a high-rise building were killed on the night of June 14, including five Ukrainian nationals and three Ukrainian children.
On Wednesday, the Ynet news site identified the three dead children as Ukrainian Nastia Borik, 7, who was undergoing treatment in Israel for leukemia, and two of her cousins, Konstantin Totvich, 9, and Ilya Peshkurov, 13, of Bat Yam. Nastia’s mother, Maria Peshkurova, 30, and her grandmother, Lena Peshkurova, 60, were also killed in the blast. Her father is understood to be in Ukraine, fighting in the war there.
Around 1,000 Bat Yam residents have moved to hotels in Bat Yam and nearby Tel Aviv, and dozens of buildings have been damaged. A spokeswoman said there was no final decision yet on how many buildings would need to be pulled down.
Tel Aviv
In Tel Aviv, which has suffered several missile hits, 1,196 residents have been evacuated to 13 hotels throughout the city. As in the other affected cities, municipal staff, including community managers and social workers, are being deployed, and efforts are being made to meet basic needs such as clothing and medicine for evacuees.
A spokesman for the city said it was too early to provide details on the damage to buildings.
Petah Tikva
Around 1,500 people (400 families) from Petah Tikva are meanwhile living in nine hotels in Petah Tikva, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, and Ra’anana, following a direct hit on one of four 23-story tower blocks, which killed four people.
A city spokesman said three of the blocks would probably be fit for habitation in a few weeks.
Shockwaves from the blast blew out the balcony windows of several dozen apartments nearby, he added.
Bnei Brak
In Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, where an elderly man was killed in a missile attack, 750 people from 146 families were evacuated to hotels in the city and other facilities suitable for the ultra-Orthodox evacuees in Netanya, Kibbutz Hefetz Haim near Gedera, Ramat Gan, and northern Tiberias.
Early on Monday, a missile struck a religious girls’ school in the city, which collapsed, and caused heavy collateral damage to the neighboring ALEH rehabilitative facility — a critical refuge for nearly 300 children and young adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.
Two old four-story tenement blocks will need to be demolished and rebuilt as part of the city’s urban renewal program, a spokesman said.
Several other old buildings that sustained damage could be repaired, the spokesman said. Still, the city was also considering including them in its program for urban renewal, which involves pulling down old low-rise buildings and replacing them with modern tower blocks.
North
In northern Israel, which has sustained repeated missile attacks from Iran, damage has been limited to the Arab town of Tamra, east of Haifa, and the Bazan oil refinery and a residential street in Haifa.
In Tamra, a missile struck a two-story home, killing a child and three women from the same family and injuring another 10.
Around 50 people were evacuated, according to the city’s security officer, Muhammad Awad, all of them choosing to move in with relatives. Two three-story buildings will need to be demolished, and repairs will have to be carried out to over 100 others, Awad estimated.
He explained that the damage was extensive because the city was so densely populated. He added that a lack of bomb shelters meant around 1,500 residents were taking shelter in local schools.
In Haifa, three workers were killed, and substantial damage was caused to the Bazan oil refinery complex, which has since been shuttered.
Elsewhere in the city, a missile caused extensive damage to four blocks. Around a dozen families are being accommodated in two city hotels.
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