Three-month-old baby pulled out of rubble alive after Iran strikes Israel

Yahoo

13 hours ago

A three-month-old baby was among those rescued from the rubble after retaliatory Iranian missile strikes hit homes in central Israel.
At least three people were killed and 20 injured when Rishon LeZion, a suburb of Tel-Aviv, was struck by an early morning missile barrage.
A police officer was seen clutching the baby, who emergency services said was lightly wounded.
'I pulled her into my arms and then gave her to the first police officer I saw, and then started lifting out all the other family members,' Idan Chen, the fire and rescue service captain, said.
'As we were doing this there were people trapped in the home above and next door – and opposite there was a fire,' he told Walla, an Israeli news outlet.
Dozens of houses were damaged and some completely destroyed. Streets were strewn with rubble and burnt-out cars from the impact of the rocket.
Rishon LeZion was one of a number of sites where Iranian missiles penetrated Israeli air defences on Friday night.
As well as the three killed, dozens were wounded by a missile that landed near their homes, Israel's ambulance service said.
'Among the casualties: a woman around 60 was rescued without signs of life, a man around 45 was evacuated in critical condition... and was later pronounced dead,' the Magen David Adom, Israel's national medical emergency service, said, adding that 19 others were wounded.
The bombing came after Israel launched its biggest-ever air offensive against its long-time foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Air-raid sirens sounded across Israel, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, sending residents rushing into shelters as successive waves of Iranian missiles streaked across the skies and Israeli interceptors rose up to meet them.
On Saturday, Israel Katz, Israel's defence minister, said the Iranian leadership had crossed a red line by firing at civilians and will 'pay a heavy price for it'.
A missile fired from Yemen by the Iran-backed Houthi militia, killed five Palestinians including three children in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
In Iran, several explosions were heard overnight in Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Israel said its air force targeted the capital again on Saturday morning, hitting air-defence systems, which protect the city.
'For the first time since the beginning of the war, over 1,500 kms from Israeli territory, the IAF [Israeli military] struck defence arrays in the area of Tehran,' it said.
The Fars news agency said two projectiles hit Tehran's Mehrabad airport, and Iranian media said flames were reported there. Close to key Iranian leadership sites, the airport hosts an air-force base with fighter jets and transport aircraft.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's UN envoy, said 78 people, including senior military officials, have been killed in Israel's strikes on Iran and more than 320 wounded, most of them civilians.
Tehran launched waves of air strikes on Saturday after two salvos on Friday night, Fars reported. One of the waves targeted Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub, before dawn, with explosions heard as far as Jerusalem, witnesses said.
Those were in response to Israel's attacks on Iran early on Friday against commanders, nuclear scientists, military targets and nuclear sites. Iran denies that its uranium enrichment activities are part of a secret weapons programme.
The US military helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed to Israel on Friday, US officials said. Israel's military said Iran fired fewer than 100 missiles on Friday, and that most were intercepted or fell short.
The Israeli strikes on Iran throughout the day and the Iranian retaliation raised fears of a broader regional conflagration, although Iran's allies – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – have been decimated by Israel.
IRNA, Iran's state news agency, said Tehran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel after Israel blasted the country's huge Natanz underground nuclear site and killed its top military commanders.
Israeli officials said Natanz was significantly hurt but that it may be some time before the extent of damage was clear. Western countries have long accused Iran of refining uranium there to levels suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.
The above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz has been destroyed, Rafael Grossi, UN nuclear watchdog chief, told the Security Council on Friday. He said the UN was still gathering information about Israeli attacks on two other facilities, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, 20 miles north east of the Iranian city of Qom, and another near Isfahan.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, accused Israel of starting a war. A senior Iranian official said nowhere in Israel would be safe and revenge would be painful.
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