JERUSALEM (VINnews) — New details from a comprehensive investigation into the disaster caused by the direct missile strike on the synagogue shelter in Beit Shemesh reveal that only two of the nine people killed were inside the shelter when the missile struck.

According to the investigation published on Friday morning in the Haaretz newspaper, another person was standing at the entrance to the shelter at the moment of impact, while the rest of the victims were outside the shelter when the missile hit the site.

The missile that struck the structure carried a warhead weighing more than 400 kilograms, one of the heaviest warheads to fall in Israel since the start of the war.

At the time of the strike, about 30 residents were inside the shelter. Most of them were standing close to the wallsand survived. Dozens of people were injured by the blast wave and explosion.

According to the website of the Israel Home Front Command, the alert for the missile launch was activated at 13:41.

One of the people who was inside the shelter, Sarah Fanny Amar, said that the siren continued even after the impact, which she believes may indicate that it was activated only a very short time before the missile hit. Another resident said that the explosion occurred during the siren, while another witness claimed it was heard even before the alarm began.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces responded that the claim is incorrect, stating that the alert was issued as required according to the official protection timelines, and that an early warning was also sent through a personal alert message.

Those killed in the strike included:

• Bruria Cohen (76) and her son Yossi Cohen (41), who were inside the shelter.
• Oren Katz (46), who was standing on the staircase leading to the shelter entrance when the missile struck.

Six additional victims who were outside the shelter at the time:

• Sarah Elimelech (71) and her daughter Ronit Elimelech (45)
• Gavriel Revah (16)
• The siblings Yaakov Biton (16), Avigail Biton (15), and Sarah Biton (13).

Sarah Fanny Amar, who was inside the shelter during the impact and was injured, said she was sitting on a wooden bench next to the wall when the explosion occurred.

“I felt a blast wave, and suddenly I felt metal bars and stones simply falling on me,” she recounted.

She said the area went completely dark while the siren was still sounding.

According to her testimony, she managed to pull herself out of the rubble, bleeding and suffering from swelling on her head. She was evacuated to a hospital and hospitalized for a day.

The Biton family lived near the site. When the alert sounded, Yaakov left with his younger sisters Avigail and Sarah toward the shelter, while their mother Tamar remained at home.

She said that within a split second the impact occurred, and the house shook violently.

The father Yitzhak and the youngest daughter Rachel, age four, were on the upper floor and managed to escape the house.

Tamar went outside and called for her children, but received no response.
For hours the parents hoped their children had been taken to one of the hospitals, but only the next day did they receive the devastating news that all three children had been killed.

The Home Front Command determined that the shelter met all required standards. In 2023, the shelter was inspected by a Home Front Command surveyor and was rated “excellent.” In 2015, a synagogue built with light construction was added on top of the shelter.

According to the investigation, the warhead’s detonation mechanism was triggered when the missile struck the synagogue roof, after which the explosion penetrated the shelter ceiling.

A professional who spoke with Haaretz said that the ceiling bent under the force of the impact but did not collapse completely, which likely saved many of the people inside.

The force of the explosion caused extensive damage in the surrounding area. According to the investigation, buildings within a radius of about 600 meters from the impact site suffered damage of varying severity. 10 to 15 two-story buildings sustained structural damage.