Army says safe rooms still best against Iranian missiles after two killed while sheltering

The Home Front Command confirms that two people were killed by a ballistic missile while sheltering in a protected space in their home, but stresses that remaining in a bomb safe room is still the safest place to be amid Iran’s attacks.

According to the Home Front Command, one of the ballistic missiles fired overnight, carrying a warhead of hundreds of kilograms, directly hit a safe room on the fourth floor of a high-rise apartment block in Petah Tikva.

The direct missile impact “breached” the bomb safe room, which is designed to sustain the shockwave of such missiles as well as shrapnel, though not a direct strike from a large explosive warhead.

Two people in the safe room were killed; however, those in the shelters on the floors above and below were unharmed, the Home Front Command says.

The two other fatalities in Petah Tikva were outside of protective spaces when the missile struck. One person was on the floor above where a missile hit, but not in their safe room, and the other was in a neighboring building hit by the shockwave, according to the Home Front Command.

The Home Front Command says bomb safe rooms are the safest place to be amid ballistic missile attacks, especially in new buildings, and even outperform public bomb shelters, though the older underground shelters are still sufficient. The reinforced rooms have saved countless lives in the missile barrages from Iran thus far, it says.