"We were in the bedroom on the upper floor," Chen Amir said. "We received the alert and went downstairs to the mamad... Half a minute from the siren going off, the missile fell here."
The neighbor of a couple in their 70s who were killed by a direct hit from an Iranian missile to their home in Ramat Gan early on Wednesday morning explained his first reaction to the strike in an interview with 103FM.
"We were in the bedroom on the upper floor," Chen Amir said. "We received the alert and went downstairs to the safe room. We entered the safe room even before the siren went off, and then the siren started. It was short, half a minute from the siren going off, the missile fell here."
He described the first sights after the impact, saying that the power went off and back on, and that they heard the sound of glass breaking. "I went outside, there was thick smoke, a very strong smell, I saw the front door, and the entire living room was shattered and turned upside down."
In the moments after the explosion, Amir tried to check if his neighbors had been injured while dealing with the extensive damage and thick smoke in their apartment. "I saw the neighbors' door ripped off. I realized the missile had fallen in their apartment. It was dark at their place, but at ours, there was still light. I went in and shouted, 'Is anyone there? Is anyone there?' There was a strong smell and smoke; I was afraid there might be dangerous material. I went out because I didn’t hear an answer. I said maybe they weren’t home," he described the moments of fear.
According to him, the hope that the apartment was empty was shattered: "The truth is, I hoped they weren’t home. Turns out, they didn’t manage to get to the safe room, and they were thrown by the blast, with all the rubble on top of them."
Building mainly intact, only two apartments significantly damaged
The building, which was built at the end of the 1990s and includes safe rooms in each apartment, suffered significant damage, though mainly in the two apartments involved. Amir noted that the safe room provided the necessary protection for him and his wife and prevented casualties in their home. "The building is relatively intact. The neighbors have no serious damage," he said, referring to the state of the structure this morning.
Despite the personal pain and loss of his neighbors, Amir wanted to convey a clear message to the public about the importance of following the Home Front Command's guidelines without delay. "It’s important for me to say that they should stick to the instructions because it really saves lives. It saved me. If we had delayed another second or two to enter, sometimes you hear the siren and think there's another minute. That’s not right. I’m telling you the truth, in my opinion, if you get an alert, go into the protected area, don’t wait. There are no rules about it, really no rules," he concluded his remarks from the scene.
