‘Real trauma’ – Bat Yam building hit by Iranian missile demolished

Weeks after a deadly Iranian missile strike, a Bat Yam apartment building was demolished as grief-stricken survivors watched.

By World Israel News Staff

A building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam was demolished on Thursday morning, weeks after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed nine people.

Residents of the building, who were evacuated after the impact, and members of the tight-knit neighborhood watched the structure being brought down.

“It’s gut-wrenching. There’s a deep sense of sadness and loss — as if the building itself is dying. We’re trying to come to terms with it, but there’s no hope. The people who died were our neighbors, like family,” Yair Moshe, a longtime resident of the building, told Hebrew-language outlet Walla.

Moshe noted that the destruction in Bat Yam was “among the worst in this war,” saying that he had personally known the victims of the Iranian missile strike.

“Our neighbors were an elderly couple — killed along with their daughter and grandchildren,” Moshe said. Another victim, who lived on the third floor, was “always full of joy.”

“Bat Yam is a place where people sit together downstairs, smiling and talking,” he continued. “Now it’s all gone. Our building symbolized something. When they died, it died too.”

Moshe’s wife, Naomi Hadar, said the couple had been home with their children at the time of the deadly missile strike.

“There’s real trauma here, especially among the children,” Hadar told Walla, adding that the authorities had not provided sufficient emotional and psychological support to those impacted by the attack.

“We feel like we’re begging the authorities [for help.] Our four-year-old urgently needs therapy but still hasn’t received any psychological support. That’s just as important as money or material aid. We all need help to process this disaster and begin to move forward.”

The Israeli victims of the strike were named as Meir “Miro” Vaknin, 56, Michael “Miki” Nahum, 61; Efrat Saranga, 44; and Belina “Bella” Ashkenazi, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor originally from Bulgaria.

A family of Ukrainian nationals was also killed. They had relocated to Israel so that a young family member could receive treatment for cancer.

They were identified as Anastasia “Nastya” Buryk, 7, who was battling leukemia; her mother, Mariia “Masha” Pieshkurova, 30; her grandmother, Olena Pieshkurova, 54; and cousins Illia Pieshkurov, 14, and
Kostiantyn Tutevich, 10.