Body of additional Bat Yam victim pulled from the rubble

Seven people were killed in the Iranian missile strike on an apartment building in a Tel Aviv suburb; five of the victims were Ukrainian refugees – among them three children.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

An additional victim of the Iranian missile strike on an apartment building in Bat Yam was identified as Efrat Saranga.

Saranga’s body was pulled from the rubble nearly a day after a missile destroyed the apartment building where she lived in in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The 44-year-old was married for eight years to her husband, Ofir, and had no children, according to Hebrew-language media reports.

She is survived by her husband and two younger brothers.

The Bat Yam municipality said it shares in the Saranga family’s grief and will provide support to her loved ones.

Seven people were killed in the strike on the residential complex in the Tel Aviv suburb, with five of the dead identified as Ukrainian refugees.

The Israeli government has not yet publicly released the names of the victims with Ukrainian citizenship, as they work to inform their next-of-kin in Ukraine and arrange transportation for their burial in their home country.

Among the Ukrainian nationals killed were a teenager and two children, aged eight and ten.

Rescue teams are still searching the rubble for one person, who remains missing as of Monday morning.

“Iran will pay a very heavy price for the murder of civilians — women, children — that it carried out deliberately,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the scene in Bat Yam on Sunday.

“We will achieve our objectives, and we will strike them with overwhelming force,” the premier added.

Netanyahu said that the destruction in Bat Yam proved that Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear program are necessary for protecting the Jewish State.

“We are here because we are in an existential battle — one that is now clear to every citizen of Israel. Think about what would happen if Iran had a nuclear weapon to drop on Israel’s cities,” the prime minister said.