For 40 hours following the deadly Iranian strike on the Arab town of Tamra late Saturday night, Mahmoud Kama’an has been awake, hard at work. The head of the municipal first aid services in the Arab town, Kama’an arrived on the scene three minutes after the strike and worked through the night and morning to rescue, evacuate, and assist residents affected by the strike.
Manar al-Qassem Abu al-Hija Khatib, her two daughters Hala, 13, and Shada, 20, and their relative Manar Diab Khatib were killed when the Iranian ballistic missile directly struck their home. Fourteen others were injured in the incident.
“One body was with us on the road in front of the house, and another was three houses away. In the morning, they were still collecting body parts from all over the area,” Kama’an told Davar. Given the destruction—the blast shattered windows dozens of meters away, and pieces of the house’s wall flew 35 meters yards, landing on a house across the street—it’s hard to believe anyone survived the explosion.
Adal Khatib, incoming director-general of the town, told Davar that Tamra’s welfare system and municipal teams are taking care of those in need.
“There’s damage to infrastructure, but aside from some difficulty accessing the area after the strike, the police, firefighters, and ambulances arrived quickly,” he said. “Two families whose homes were hit spent the night in the school’s shelter. This incident should prove to everyone that we must listen to the instructions and warnings.”
Across from the Khatib family home that took a direct missile hit is Lutfi’s house. When the siren sounded, he and his wife rushed into the reinforced room—where their young daughters sleep—when the siren sounded and were thrown forward by the blast.
“The girls are in shock, terrified,” Lufti said. “They’re with my wife’s parents now. When we came out of the safe room, everything was dust. We couldn’t see anything.”
Lutfi’s brothers, who live in the floors below, were also affected, and one was taken to Rambam Hospital in Haifa for treatment. “Six people got into one ambulance,” Lufti said.
In the morning, officials responsible for surveying damage arrived, and Lufti began to document the shock, the horror, and the fear into checkboxes and paperwork.
Ranaa Fahoum-Shama, another Tamra resident, described “a very hard and frightening night.”
“We quickly went down to the first floor, to my father-in-law’s apartment, because there’s no secure room or shelter in our building,” she told Davar. “As we were going down, we saw the missiles in the sky through the windows. It was a very frightening sight. When we reached my father-in-law’s front door, we heard a massive explosion, followed by a strong, suffocating smell of smoke.”
When they made it to the downstairs apartment, the power went out. “We heard screams from across the street. That was the first sign that something had happened in Tamra,” Fahoum-Shama said.
After the screams, the sounds of ambulance sirens began. Fahoum-Shama says the first updates came through friends’ WhatsApp groups. “I fell into depression, because I know the family. I couldn’t grasp if it was real. Then phone reception cut out too,” she said.
Her daughter, a 10th-grader, got a WhatsApp message saying that a student in 11th grade was injured in the explosion.
“She knows her. It scared and shocked her. I had to really calm her down, to be there for her,” she said. She added that no one in the family managed to get back to sleep.
As morning came, the scale of the destruction and loss became clear. “Everyone was sad. Total panic. No one could function, no one knew what to do or how to help, or if it was even possible to help,” Fahoum-Shama said. “Slowly it became clear that an entire family had perished. It was hard for us to process the sorrow. I heard and understood what happened, but I still haven’t come to terms with it. I feel like it’s not real.”
She described the silence enveloping the town’s residents. “My daughters are very quiet. We’re still in shock. The whole city is sad, in shock. No one is talking. It’ll take time for us to process what happened. Many homes were damaged. The damage to the city is enormous. But the deepest pain is the loss.”
In Tamra, a city of about 36,000 people, there are no public shelters. A few protective structures were installed about a year ago. Only the newer neighborhoods have secure rooms.
This trend is unfortunately common across Arab cities in Israel. Amid the shock, frustration in Tamra is growing.
“The words get stuck in your throat,” Fahoum-Shama said. “I think it’s time to honor the memory of the women who were killed—but we also need to ask if this tragedy could have been prevented.”
Bayadan Nadaf, deputy director of the municipal first aid unit, added that his unit needs to train many more people. “We must get the information out to the public so they know how to act in emergencies,” he told Davar.
The municipal first aid volunteers have been trained by the Home Front Command and Magen David Adom and represent the first pilot of its kind in the country—local volunteers who can respond quickly to offer professional first aid.
“In the Home Front Command course we trained for this kind of event, but it’s different in reality,” Kama’an, the unit director, said. “You see real bodies, parts, and you know the people.”
