Israel rescuers say four bodies recovered from Iran strike site

HAIFA - Israeli rescue services said Monday that the bodies of four missing people had been recovered from the rubble of a residential building in the city of Haifa, after it was struck by an Iranian missile the previous day.

"All four missing persons have been located... All were found without signs of life, and MDA paramedics declared them deceased," Israel's emergency service, Magen David Adom, said in a statement.

The victims were two men and two women.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli firefighters had reported locating the bodies of two of the four individuals.

AFP footage showed rescue teams bringing four bodies out one by one on stretchers, wrapped in white shrouds.

Dozens of firefighters and medical personnel were deployed to the scene on Sunday evening, shortly after a direct missile strike tore away part of the building.

"We have a major destruction site," said Elad Edri, chief of staff for Israel's Home Front Command.

Magen David Adom said the attack wounded four other people, including a 10-month-old baby who sustained a head injury.

An 82-year-old man was also among the injured, having been struck "by a heavy object and the blast", according to MDA. A hospital later said he was in stable condition.

Images and footage released by MDA on Sunday showed smoke rising from the remains of a heavily damaged building in a densely populated area of Haifa, while rescuers laid out stretchers on the road for casualties.

Paramedic Tal Shustak said that when emergency calls were received, "we were dispatched in large forces to the scene and saw extensive destruction, including glass, smoke and concrete scattered across the ground".

On Monday, the Israeli military said it had detected fresh waves of missiles fired from Iran, each time saying its "defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat".

Several impact sites were reported, including in Petah Tikva in central Israel, where a 34-year-old woman was seriously injured by shrapnel, MDA said.

Images circulating on social media appeared to show a projectile landing near a parked car by a roadside, with the woman seen stumbling away from the scene.

Iran has fired missiles daily at Israel since February 28, in retaliation for joint US-Israeli attacks on the country that have killed several top Iranian leaders, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli and US airstrikes have targeted Iran's missile production sites and nuclear facilities among other targets.