“The Israel Tax Authority has received applications for financial assistance for nearly 33,000 damaged structures,” reports the Israeli daily Haaretz.
Destruction in Bat Yam, Israel after an Iranian missile strike. (Yoav Keren/Wikipedia)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The damage assessment in Israel from Iran’s counterattack against Tel Aviv’s unprovoked aggression last month is coming in.
Despite strenuous efforts by Israeli authorities to suppress news from bomb sites — including arresting news crews — the extent of the destruction suffered by Israel is now being revealed.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday that the vaunted Israeli air defense system, headlined by the so-called Iron Dome, failed to prevent a significant inundation of Iranian ordnance.
Some single ballistic missiles landing on Israeli streets damaged a wide area of surrounding buildings purely from the vibrations of the impact, the newspaper reported.
“Throughout Israel, between the shock waves and the direct impact of the heavy Iranian missiles, the destruction spread out over hundreds of meters,” Haaretz said. “Thousands of houses and buildings have been damaged, some severely, with exterior and interior walls collapsing.”
“The common denominator is the person uprooted from his or her home, who will feel the shock for years,” the paper said. It further reported:
“In Tel Aviv, 480 buildings have been damaged, many of them badly, at five separate sites. In Ramat Gan, it’s 237 buildings at three sites, about 10 badly. In another Tel Aviv suburb, Bat Yam, 78 buildings were damaged by one hit; 22 will have to be razed.
The Israel Tax Authority has received applications for financial assistance for nearly 33,000 damaged structures. Another 4,450 files have been opened for the loss of belongings and equipment, and another 4,119 for damaged vehicles”.
The Iranian attacks killed 29 Israeli civilians and, according to a Haaretz map, 96 buildings were severely damaged.
By contrast, in the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq fired 42 Scud missiles at Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing two Israelis and damaging 4,100 buildings, destroying 28.
The Haaretz report deals only with civilian buildings. Iran also hit a number of Israeli military bases, including Kirya and Camp Moshe Dayan in Tel Aviv; as well as the BAZAN oil refinery in Haifa, causing significant damage; and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, destroying two buildings.
Iron Dome system intercepts Gaza rockets aimed Ashdod in 2014, failed to stop waves of Iranian attacks in June 2025 . (IDF/Wikimedia Commons)
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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quote:
“The Israel Tax Authority has received applications for financial assistance for nearly 33,000 damaged structures. Another 4,450 files have been opened for the loss of belongings and equipment, and another 4,119 for damaged vehicles”.”
Is the tax authority similar to the U.S. terrorism insurance ?
Where does the money come from ?
Hard to feel sorry for Israelis traumatized by losing their homes . . .
They got off lucky this time.
Next time will be different.
But the Israeli fanatics have too many unsolvable domestic problems (BB, that is–before the bombing).
So they will attack Iran again, and Iran will strike back, and it will be the end of Israel.
Great news. Time the Israelis got a taste of what they have been dishing out for 77 years. Pity they did not level Tel Aviv, the base for the most evil regime on the planet.
I’m sure many people feel the same way Roslyn. The bully regime takes a few hits. Unfortunately they are too evil to understand karma. They believe themselves to be omnipotent.
For sane minds like yours Israel is indeed an evil regime that needs to sample its own medicine. But for many of it’s brainless supporters across the First World it continues to be an excellent model worthy of emulation and would happily take it as their strategic mentor despite it’s monstrous cruelties ! Even the unjustly targeted Iranians are going easy on them for complex reasons that may even border on lingering romanticism !
Israelis should count themselves lucky that their capital wasn’t reduced to rubble like the capital of the German genocidal regime.
On a wider context, the failure of the Israeli and American naval anti-missile systems to prevent a significant percentage of missiles getting through, makes any assistance to Taiwan by a US navy carrier battle group in the South China Sea essentially impossible in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Your last point is important because western mainstream media is not talking much about the repeated failure of western weapons systems against much newer ones from Russia, China, and other non-western states. In particular, missiles and drones.
It appears that the west is being rapidly outgunned and left behind. It is running low on its stocks, and doesn’t have anywhere near enough manufacturing capability to replenish them. In a year or two, it may be unable to engage any adversary, particularly one as large and powerful as China.
As for Israel, it is in the same boat, and if it continues attacking Iran, may well suffer much, much more destruction. Perhaps, that is what is needed to finally put a stop to its relentless aggression in the Middle East – turning it into the Lesser Israel, instead of Greater Israel!
I don’t suppose the Palestinians in Gaza and the West bank have the luxury of making insurance claims !
So boo Hoo, sympathy for the devil, not likely.
Absolutely, even the luxury of filing “Jewish lightening” insurance scams is denied the Palestinians.
Paper Dome, baby! Paper Dome!
““The common denominator is the person uprooted from his or her home, who will feel the shock for years,” the paper said.” Hmm…This sounds kind of familiar, just can’t put my finger on, it’ll come to me though.
There’s a song on YT called: Boom Boom Tel Aviv this is what you get for all your evil deeds boom boom boom boom boom you brought this upon yourself …
This song has been spread over many sites and channels as the tune has caught on with a huge audience. While I am against all violence against any person, either physical or emotional, I am with any resistance that says this damage to the state of Israel is nemesis or just retribution for all the genocide towards the Palestinians. My only wish, although I am all out of Hopium, is that the phrase anti-semitic used currently only as a pejorative against anything for Palestine, would be placed in its proper historical context, since Arabs are semites too.
Totally agreed. Also Israeli intelligence should have been long aware of the inadequacy of their Iron Dome to protect their strategic assets. There were even suggestions within media circles and responses there to that Israel should develop a flexible Rubber Condom instead to cushion and absorb the anticipated saturation attacks from hostile sources. There was adequate time, yet these were not looked into in their complacency. Or were the Israelis really luring Iranian strikes by a display of tactical vulnerability ?
Another great song for these times: hxxps://youtu.be/_SOq4RQlB9Q