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Israeli rescuers search for missing in building strike, two dead / Photo: © AFP
Israeli rescuers search for missing in building strike, two dead
Israeli firefighters were searching for two missing people in the rubble of a residential building in the northern city of Haifa after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed two others, authorities said Monday.
The direct hit on a seven-storey building tore through sections of the structure which has partially collapsed, the military and rescue services said.
AFP footage showed rescuers using flashlights to search through rubble and scattered concrete blocks.
The strike took place minutes after the military warned it had detected a new round of missiles fired from Iran at around 1500 GMT.
Elad Edri, chief of staff of Israel's Home Front Command, said that four people were missing.
"We have a major destruction site," he said in a video statement.
Israel's Fire and Rescue Services said later that two of the four people trapped under the rubble had been found dead.
The building was hit by a "direct impact of a missile", a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming it was fired from Iran.
- Eldery man, baby wounded -
Israel's emergency service, Magen David Adom, said four people were wounded in the strike, including a 10-month-old baby who suffered a head injury.
An 82-year-old man was also in a "serious condition", MDA said. A hospital later said he was stable.
He was "wounded by a heavy object and the blast", the MDA said, adding that the other three suffered shrapnel and blast injuries.
Dozens of Israeli security and members of rescue forces were deployed at the site of the strike, an AFP correspondent reported.
Images and footage published by MDA show smoke rising from the remains of a flattened building in a densely populated area, and stretchers laid on the road by rescuers for casualties.
MDA paramedic Shevach Rothenshtrych quoted residents saying that there were casualties trapped under the rubble on the lower floors, and the 82-year-old was rescued after first responders "managed to move large pieces of concrete with our hands".
His colleague Tal Shustak said that when emergency calls were received, "we were dispatched in large forces to the scene and saw extensive destruction, including glass, smoke and concrete scattered across the ground".
On Monday, the military detected fresh waves of missiles fired from Iran, and each time it said its "defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat".
Iran has fired missiles daily at Israel since February 28, in retaliation to joint US-Israeli attacks on the country that has killed several top Iranian leaders, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and US airstrikes have attacked a number of Iran's missile production sites and also nuclear facilities.
D. Wassiljew--BTZ
