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As Israel Pounds Tehran, Central Israeli City Still Searches for Missing From Iran’s Deadliest Strike
Rescue personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran, in Bat Yam, Israel, June 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The search continued Tuesday for a woman still unaccounted for after Iran’s deadliest strike on central Israel, which devastated residential neighborhoods in Bat Yam early Sunday. As recovery crews combed through the ruins, a small moment of relief came Tuesday when Home Front Command and police teams pulled two puppies alive from a damaged apartment.
The dogs had been trapped inside since the strike and were transferred to Bat Yam Municipality’s veterinary services for medical care. Authorities are now attempting to locate the evacuated owners to reunite them with the surviving pets.
Bat Yam Mayor Zvika Brut with the puppies found in the rubble caused by Iranian strike in the central coastal city of Bat Yam. Photo: Vadim Action
The strike, which flattened parts of the densely populated coastal city just south of Tel Aviv, killed eight people and wounded 180 others. Among the dead were Efrat Saranga, 44; Bella Ashkenazi, 90; Michael Nahum, 61; Meir Voknin, 53; and four Ukrainian nationals who had relocated to Israel after Russia’s invasion of their homeland.
The Iranian missile, estimated to weigh 500 kilograms, obliterated dozens of buildings in Bat Yam. According to local officials, roughly 75 structures sustained varying degrees of damage, some reduced entirely to rubble. Residents returned to scenes of total destruction, their homes unrecognizable.
“It’s a huge mess, debris everywhere, shrapnel inside the house, and we weren’t even directly hit,” Boris, a local resident, told The Algemeiner. He said authorities had not allowed him to retrieve any personal belongings from his apartment, adding that he had no home insurance. “Even if I did, most policies don’t cover terror attacks unless you add special terrorism coverage,” he said.
Under Israeli law, the Property Tax Authority is responsible for compensating victims of war or terrorism for structural damage. However, coverage for the contents of homes is limited and typically excludes valuables like jewelry or art.
“I’ve lost everything, but I’m alive, and that’s what matters,” Boris said.
Chana Ohana, 77, another resident of the devastated area, described the terror as the missiles struck. “The booms were so loud, I was sure that was the end of me,” she said. Displaced from her home, she said she had nowhere to go. “The police are supposed to arrange a hotel, but nothing yet. My son will come for me, but his apartment is tiny, and there’s no bomb shelter nearby.”
The barrage on Bat Yam marked one of the most lethal Iranian assaults since hostilities between the two countries escalated last week. Iranian strikes have targeted civilian areas across Israel following Israel’s attack on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure Friday, in what Israeli officials described as a preemptive move to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of the strike. “We are here because we are in the middle of an existential struggle, that all Israeli citizens understand,” Netanyahu said. Standing amid the debris, he warned of the stakes involved. “Think about what would happen if Iran had a nuclear weapon to drop on Israeli cities. Think about what would happen if Iran had 20,000 such missiles. Not one, but 20,000. An existential threat to Israel,” he said. “But we are on the way to victory,” he concluded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the site of the Iranian strike in Bat Yam. Photo: GPO
Since the devastation in Bat Yam, a series of fresh Iranian missile strikes have hit Israel in the ensuing days. In an aerial barrage overnight Sunday, missiles hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva, and Haifa. In central Tel Aviv, two missiles struck near the US Embassy damaging almost a kilometer of property and injuring dozens. In Petah Tikva, four people were killed; three died in Haifa, where an Iranian missile blast damaged the Bazan oil refinery, triggering a fire and temporarily shutting down part of its operations, the ripple effects of which are being felt in the regional energy market. Global oil prices temporarily surged to the mid-$70s per barrel before stabilizing.
Israel, meanwhile, has escalated its campaign deep into Iran. On Tuesday the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it had launched a major airstrike on a command center in central Tehran, killing Ali Shadmani, Iran’s newly appointed wartime chief of staff. Shadmani, an aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who held his post for three days before being killed, succeeded Mohammad Bagheri, who was killed in an Israeli strike along with IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami on Friday.
Israel also struck additional nuclear and military infrastructure across Tehran, including sites tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and missile production, triggering mass evacuations of Tehran.
The post As Israel Pounds Tehran, Central Israeli City Still Searches for Missing From Iran’s Deadliest Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Eyes Bringing Azerbaijan, Central Asian Nations into Abraham Accords, Sources Say
US President Donald Trump points a finger as he delivers remarks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 31, 2025. Photo: Kent Nishimura via Reuters Connect
President Donald Trump’s administration is actively discussing with Azerbaijan the possibility of bringing that nation and some Central Asian allies into the Abraham Accords, hoping to deepen their existing ties with Israel, according to five sources with knowledge of the matter.
As part of the Abraham Accords, inked in 2020 and 2021 during Trump’s first term in office, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
Azerbaijan and every country in Central Asia, by contrast, already have longstanding relations with Israel, meaning that an expansion of the accords to include them would largely be symbolic, focusing on strengthening ties in areas like trade and military cooperation, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Such an expansion would reflect Trump’s openness to pacts that are less ambitious than his administration’s goal to convince regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to restore ties with Israel while war rages in Gaza.
The kingdom has repeatedly said it would not recognize Israel without steps towards Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
Another key sticking point is Azerbaijan’s conflict with its neighbor Armenia, since the Trump administration considers a peace deal between the two Caucasus nations as a precondition to join the Abraham Accords, three sources said.
While Trump officials have publicly floated several potential entrants into the accords, the talks centered on Azerbaijan are among the most structured and serious, the sources said. Two of the sources argued a deal could be reached within months or even weeks.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Aryeh Lightstone, a key Witkoff aide, met Aliyev later in the spring in part to discuss the Abraham Accords, three of the sources said.
As part of the discussions, Azerbaijani officials have contacted officials in Central Asian nations, including in nearby Kazakhstan, to gauge their interest in a broader Abraham Accords expansion, those sources said. It was not clear which other countries in Central Asia – which includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – were contacted.
The State Department, asked for comment, did not discuss specific countries, but said expanding the accords has been one of the key objectives of Trump. “We are working to get more countries to join,” said a US official.
The Azerbaijani government declined to comment.
The White House, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Kazakhstani embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Any new accords would not modify the previous Abraham Accords deals signed by Israel.
OBSTACLES REMAIN
The original Abraham Accords – inked between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – were centered on restoration of ties. The second round of expansion appears to be morphing into a broader mechanism designed to expand US and Israeli soft power.
Wedged between Russia to the north and Iran to the south, Azerbaijan occupies a critical link in trade flows between Central Asia and the West. The Caucasus and Central Asia are also rich in natural resources, including oil and gas, prompting various major powers to compete for influence in the region.
Expanding the accords to nations that already have diplomatic relations with Israel may also be a means of delivering symbolic wins to a president who is known to talk up even relatively small victories.
Two sources described the discussions involving Central Asia as embryonic – but the discussions with Azerbaijan as relatively advanced.
But challenges remain and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached, particularly with slow progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The two countries, which both won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh – an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population – broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
In 2023, Azerbaijan retook Karabakh, prompting about 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. Both sides have since said they want to sign a treaty on a formal end to the conflict.
Primarily Christian Armenia and the US have close ties, and the Trump administration is wary of taking action that could upset authorities in Yerevan.
Still, US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump himself, have argued that a peace deal between those two nations is near.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan, we worked magic there,” Trump told reporters earlier in July. “And it’s pretty close.”
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Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base, on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, Sept. 9, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Zohra Bensemra / File.
US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, saying a Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory was the sole solution to the disputed region, state news agency MAP said on Saturday.
The long-frozen conflict pits Morocco, which considers the territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state there.
Trump at the end of his first term in office recognized the Moroccan claims to Western Sahara, which has phosphate reserves and rich fishing grounds, as part of a deal under which Morocco agreed to normalize its relations with Israel.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made clear in April that support for Morocco on the issue remained US policy, but these were Trump’s first quoted remarks on the dispute during his second term.
“I also reiterate that the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and supports Morocco’s serious, credible and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” MAP quoted Trump as saying in a message to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
“Together we are advancing shared priorities for peace and security in the region, including by building on the Abraham Accords, combating terrorism and expanding commercial cooperation,” Trump said.
As part of the Abraham Accords signed during Trump’s first term, four Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel after US mediation.
In June this year, Britain became the third permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to back an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory after the U.S. and France.
Algeria, which has recognized the self-declared Sahrawi Republic, has refused to take part in roundtables convened by the U.N. envoy to Western Sahara and insists on holding a referendum with independence as an option.
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Israel Says Its Missions in UAE Remain Open Despite Reported Security Threats
President Isaac Herzog meets on Dec. 5, 2022, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that its missions to the United Arab Emirates are open on Friday and representatives continue to operate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai in cooperation with local authorities.
This includes, the statement underlined, ensuring the protection of Israeli diplomats.
On Thursday, reports appeared in Israeli media that Israel was evacuating most of its diplomatic staff in the UAE after the National Security Council heightened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country for fear of an Iranian or Iran-sponsored attacks.
“We are emphasizing this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organizations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel,” the NSC said in a statement.
After signing the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the UAE has been among the closest regional allies of the Jewish state.
Israel is concerned about its citizens and diplomats being targeted in retaliatory attacks following its 12-day war against Iran last month.
Earlier this year, the UAE sentenced three citizens of Uzbekistan to death for last year’s murder of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Cohen.