Iranian strike kills 4 in Israel, others spared after missile 'failed to explode'

HAIFA, ISRAEL, – APRIL 6: Israeli emergency responders recover bodies from a residential building following an Iranian missile strike on April 6, 2026 in Haifa, Israel.

Four relatives were killed in Israel after an Iranian missile hit a residential building Sunday night — an incident that could have killed more people if the bomb did not “fail to go off,” officials said.

The IDF partially intercepted the missile on route to an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa late on Sunday.

The missile’s warhead, however, survived and slammed into the building, the New York Times reported.

The impact caused parts of the building to collapse, and an 18-hour search mission for survivors began. During the search, an 82-year-old man who was seriously wounded was rescued by first responders, along with a 10-month old baby who was “lightly wounded.”

 

First responders quickly removed concrete blocks and debris with their bare hands, the director for the Magen David Adom ambulance service, Erez Geller said.

 

“Part of the building remained intact, and part had collapsed into a hollow,” Geller told the Times. “It looked like there had been an earthquake.”

The four killed victims were identified as Dima Gershovitz, 42, his wife, Lucille Jane, 35, his father, Vladimir Gershovitz, 73, and his mother, Lena Gershovitz, 70, according to Israeli media sources.

 

The four were reportedly on their way back home from a Haifa hospital just hours before the missile hit the building, Ynet reported. The family did not have time to enter the building’s shelter before the missile strike.

The Home Front Command said the relatives were found at the bottom of the building, near the stairwell. President Isaac Herzog later offered his condolences to the Gershovitz family on X while thanking first responders.

 

He wrote that the Gershovitz were “a wonderful family that was wiped out in an instant by a criminal Iranian missile last night in Haifa.” He also thanked the fire and rescue team and Haifa municipality, which acted with “full dedication and professionalism” during the incident.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack without mentioning the specific residential building hit.