After all casualties in cluster bomb attack were outside shelters, Home Front urges Israelis to follow guidelines

Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Shai Klapper (left) is seen alongside other officers at a home in central Israel hit by an Iranian cluster bomb munition, March 9, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Shai Klapper (left) is seen alongside other officers at a home in central Israel hit by an Iranian cluster bomb munition, March 9, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)

Speaking at the site of one of today’s Iranian cluster munition impacts in central Israel, the chief of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Shai Klapper, calls on Israelis to follow emergency guidelines that “save lives.”

Cluster munitions reportedly hit six sites across central Israel, killing one and seriously injuring two others.

All of the casualties were outside bomb shelters, according to first responders.

“I want to express appreciation to the citizens of the State of Israel for the steadfastness and resilience you are demonstrating,” Klapper says from a home in central Israel that was hit by one of the submunitions from the Iranian ballistic missile.

“This apartment was hit by a cluster bomb. I know the scope of the launches is somewhat lower, and it may be that the amount of sirens are a bit higher, but this apartment illustrates that a cluster bomb also causes enormous damage,” he says.

Klapper says that nobody was hurt at the apartment because the family had followed the Home Front Command’s guidelines and took shelter.

“Therefore, from here I call on the citizens of Israel to continue to stand with resilience and courage, to follow the Home Front Command’s instructions — they save lives,” he adds.

Amir Shahar, whose home was hit, says the Home Front Command guidelines “truly save lives.”

“My son and my granddaughters ran to the neighborhood shelter. The apartment will be rebuilt, the home will recover, but no one was hurt, and I am full of appreciation for the response of the authorities,” he says.

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