Nine people were killed and many were wounded in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, on Sunday afternoon by a direct Iranian ballistic missile impact.
The missile struck a residential area in the city, destroying a synagogue and causing extensive damage to a public bomb shelter and surrounding homes.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it declared the deaths of eight victims at the scene and took 28 others to hospitals, two in serious condition. The death of the ninth victim was declared a short time later.
Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center said it was treating six people, including a four-year-old boy who was admitted in moderate condition, while others were evacuated to the Terem Emergency Medical Center in Beit Shemesh and the capital’s Hadassah University Hospitals in Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem.
The military said it dispatched search and rescue forces and medics to the scene, along with a helicopter to assist with evacuating the injured.
Footage showed the moment of the impact just before 2 p.m., after sirens rang out across much of the country.
Four people were killed by an Iranian ballistic missile impact in Beit Shemesh, Magen David Adom says.
Footage shows the moment of the impact. pic.twitter.com/tJHgxJoTae
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 1, 2026
The IDF said that the failure to intercept the missile was under investigation by the Israeli Air Force.
The Home Front Command was also investigating the circumstances of the impact, including the integrity of the shelter.
The military said that the Home Front Command’s early warning system functioned as intended and was activated in Beit Shemesh ahead of the actual sirens, which also sounded.
Jerusalem District police chief Deputy Commissioner Avshalom Peled said that “as far as I know,” the majority of those killed in the missile impact had been inside the public shelter.
“It was likely a direct impact on the shelter and most, if not all of those killed, were in there,” said Peled.
He noted that while in some circumstances, shelters are unable to withstand the force of a direct ballistic missile impact, they protect those inside in the vast majority of cases.
The missile impact in Beit Shemesh was the deadliest in Israel during the current conflict with Iran. The deadliest strike in Israel during the 12-day war with Iran in June 2025 also killed nine people, when a missile struck a Bat Yam apartment building.
First responders say they are treating some 20 people who were injured by a ballistic missile impact in Beit Shemesh.
Among the injuries are children, including a girl in serious condition. pic.twitter.com/4Tegga3aTy
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 1, 2026
IDF assesses Iran has some 2,500 ballistic missiles
Less than 36 hours into the renewed fighting, dubbed Operation Roaring Lion by Israel, the IDF said Sunday it assesses that Iran currently possesses some 2,500 ballistic missiles.
Ahead of the war in June 2025, the IDF said it identified efforts by Iran to significantly accelerate its production rate of ballistic missiles and increase its stockpile from around 3,000 to 8,000 within two years.
During that conflict, Iran launched more than 500 missiles at Israel, with the Israeli military reported destroying hundreds of missiles in strikes and preventing the production of 1,500 additional missiles by targeting manufacturing infrastructure.
The IDF said that in recent months, Iran has been investing significant efforts to restore its missile production capabilities, manufacturing dozens per month, with its production rate on a “upward trend.”
“The possession of missiles by a regime that intends to destroy the State of Israel constitutes an existential threat,” the IDF said, adding that it “will not allow the Iranian terror regime to restore its military capabilities, and will continue to act to eliminate any emerging threat against the citizens of the State of Israel, anywhere and at any time.”
‘If someone rises to kill you, rise to kill him first’
Shortly before the impact in Beit Shemesh, a range of politicians gathered outside the site in Tel Aviv where a rocket struck Saturday night, killing a home health aide and wounding dozens.
Speaking at the site early Sunday afternoon, President Isaac Herzog thanked US President Donald Trump “for his courage” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “for the correct decision” in launching the strikes on Iran.
“We are united at this moment to defeat the enemy and bring about change,” he said.
Israel is at war, the president stressed, “and in war, you must first take care of the home front and protect it, and second, attack and act with full force to defeat the enemy.”
“If someone rises to kill you, rise to kill him first,” he said, quoting the Talmud.
The president said Israel is not experiencing “an easy time, but it is a time in which we can see, generations ahead, how much this campaign is bringing change. Generations ahead — because the evil empire in Iran has as its sole objective the destruction of Israel.”
“This is a top priority on its agenda,” he said. “Therefore, it is our duty to be strong, resilient, and steadfast. We will get through this and move forward, and our children and grandchildren will one day be grateful for these moments.”
At the same site, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, considered Netanyahu’s main rival in elections this year, stressed his support “for the government and its leader.”
He also said that while much of the world routinely denounces what Israel does, even critics of Israel know deep down that “Israel is doing their job, in eliminating the world’s biggest terrorist dictators.”
“I’ve never been prouder to be an Israeli,” he said, “and we will never apologize for what we are doing. I give my full backing to the government and its leader. There is no left and no right.” He also hailed Israel’s military, noting that “the entire people of Israel stand behind the [air force] pilots.”
Bennett said Israel is stronger and safer “because Israel did not wait any longer” to target Iran. He lamented that Israel “for decades” followed a doctrine of “containment and waiting.” But now, he said, it is “acting on every front to harm our enemies.”
“We all proceed together” until the threats to Israel are dealt with, he added. “Now it’s the Iranian people’s turn to rise up and free itself. The one who must remove the chains of oppression is the Iranian people itself.”
Also speaking next to the missile impact in Tel Aviv, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir vowed that law enforcement will crack down on those who incite against Israel.
Speaking to the press alongside Israel Police chief Danny Levy and Tel Aviv District commander Haim Sargaroff, Ben Gvir praised the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the ongoing joint Israeli-US operation.
“The end of an era, we’ve lopped off the head of the snake,” he said, hailing Netanyahu for the waves of strikes. He then turned his focus inward, warning that police will crack down on those within Israel who “incite” against the state.
“We have a very determined police force; anyone who raises his head to try to incite against the State of Israel, anyone who raises his head to try and harm the State of Israel, we will thrash him, we will tear his head off,” he said.
He further called on Israelis to carry firearms with them: “I call on citizens to bear arms, those who have a firearm, to bear it.”
“At the end of the day, these Nazis want to destroy us all,” Ben Gvir said. “They want to eliminate all of us, and we will eliminate them one by one.”
