It was late at night when an Iranian cluster bomb flew through the ceiling of an elderly couple's apartment in central Israel and exploded in their tiny living room, killing them both.
The path of the bomb was still clearly mapped onto the ash-covered debris left behind. A large hole in the ceiling of their top-floor apartment marked where it punched through, forcing broken concrete and metal rods inwards.
Shrapnel holes across the back walls showed the force of the explosion, which destroyed the front of the apartment - leaving it open to the street outside.
Inside, a walking frame lay upended on the floor under the ash-covered furniture and rubble.
We heard three noisy interceptions, but on the fourth one, we knew it was our house, said Sigal Amir, who lives next door and was sheltering in her safe room when the explosion hit.
There was a massive boom and I felt a pain in my ear from the blast, she said. The neighbours live five metres from us – their door was blown off and their house was full of dust like snow.
She said the couple had not been in the shelter when the bomb hit as one of them had mobility issues.
While deaths from Iran's missile attacks have been rare, cluster bombs are much harder to defend against. Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani described how each bomb can carry 20-80 munitions, which are very difficult to stop even if the missile is intercepted.
The ongoing conflict has seen a shift in tactics, with Iran increasingly using these cluster munitions as the war continues. This poses new challenges for residents and military alike, as psychological impacts resonate through the community with every alarm that sends citizens to their shelters.
As the situation evolves, the government claims to have destroyed a significant portion of Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, but the residents like Sigal Amir express growing uncertainty and anxiety about the future, questioning how much longer they must endure such attacks.
