An Israeli newspaper reveals the “Beit Shemesh Disaster”: An Iranian missile penetrates defenses and directly hits a shelter with 500 kg of explosives

The Hebrew newspaper “Maariv” shed light on what it described as the “major catastrophe” that occurred in the Beit Shemesh settlement, following the fall of an Iranian missile that directly hit a shelter, in an incident that raised difficult questions once again regarding the performance of Israeli air defense systems and the ability of concrete fortifications to withstand heavy warheads.

Follow-ups – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

Preliminary investigations revealed that the missile that targeted the shelter carried a warhead weighing approximately 500 kilograms of explosives, along with high kinetic energy that created a massive impact far exceeding that of a half-ton explosion, leading to the complete penetration of the shelter, where dozens of settlers were inside at the moment of impact, resulting in the killing of 9 people, the loss of 9 others, and the injury of 57 with varying wounds.

The Israeli military investigation into the incident focuses on two main aspects: the first concerns how the missile managed to penetrate the multi-layered air defense systems, and the second concerns how it penetrated the concrete layers of the shelter. The Israeli Air Force reported that it detected the missile immediately upon its launch, and an “Arrow 3” launch platform targeted it in an attempt to intercept, but the interceptor missile failed to hit the target.

The report quoted a senior official in the Air Force as saying: “A leak occurred in Beit Shemesh. We have made significant progress in our defense systems, and we have a multi-layered system that deals with this threat, but there is no system that deals with it 100%. The system’s success rates are high, but they are not absolute. There were attempts to intercept the same missile today, attempts that failed, and a mistake occurred.”

In a related context, an Israeli military source said: “Even during the Calavi Year War, we saw a missile of this size hit a battalion headquarters or a shelter, causing it to penetrate inside.” Another added, “To repel the penetration capability of a missile with a half-ton explosive warhead, you need a concrete wall three meters thick.”

The Israeli occupation forces announced that the missile warning system worked as expected, and the settlers were able to reach the shelter in time, but the missile penetrated the shelter itself.

The questions raised regarding the interception failure and the fortifications’ ability to withstand remain the focus of the ongoing investigation, in an incident considered one of the most serious strikes to hit the Israeli home front in years.

This qualitative Iranian response comes as the latest escalation within the framework of the “True Promise 4” operation, launched by Tehran in response to the American-Israeli aggression that targeted its lands and led to the martyrdom of the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, and a number of leaders.