Missile alerts are nothing new in Tel Aviv, but an Iranian hypersonic counter-barrage is inflicting greater devastation than the Israeli city is used to.
Assi Gregoire, a 57-year-old cleaner, heard an alarm go off at 4am during one strike, with police and rescue teams arriving “almost immediately” to check the area. His family was put up in a hotel and volunteers helped him to move his belongings.
Since Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran last Friday, its Home Front Command has been on the alert for the retaliation threatened by Tehran. But with the well-drilled response there was shock for Mr Gregoire's family at how badly their home was damaged and how much they had to leave behind.
“We couldn’t imagine the damage. It was devastating, truly overwhelming,” said Mr Gregoire, who is from the Ivory Coast. “And what could we do?
“I think it’s better to make peace everywhere in the world. After what I saw yesterday, I believe even more strongly that peace is everything. We should embrace one another. We need a world of justice and peace.”
After the strike on Monday night, a special education school shut down all operations after the ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Bnei Brak suffered heavy damage.
An elderly man was killed. One municipal worker at the scene said the man had refused to move into a shelter and lived in a kind of storage cabinet.
Soldiers, rescue workers, police and firefighters were at the scene on Tuesday while residents crawled over debris with shards of glass beneath. Outside the homes, there were rows of cars completely written off, covered in dust.
Uri Schacham, a paramedic with Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom, said Iran's counter-attacks posed a different threat to what Tel Aviv is used to. Tehran says it has fired hypersonic missiles and other weapons in response to Israel's campaign of bombardments and killings.
When 200kg of explosives land “it doesn’t just affect a building but the entire street,” Mr Schacham said. Emergency teams used to responding to a handful of shrapnel injuries now find partially collapsed buildings and raging fires, he said.
On Tuesday morning, they found all the residents of a 10-storey building coming down to the street. “It’s a whole different ball game for those first to arrive,” he said.
“The situation is harder to control. The injuries are different, much more blast injuries, which are harder to assess in the field. Numbers that are way higher than we used to have for the past 20 years.”
The escalation has heavily affected flights in the Middle East, with even Israel's usually resilient Ben Gurion Airport closed. Some people have returned to Israel over a land crossing with Egypt.
Inside abandoned homes in Tel Aviv glass shards were everywhere after windows were blown out. With no electricity, the smell of rotting food escaped from freezers.
Young volunteers from a pre-military training academy were there to help the disadvantaged neighbourhood, with not enough support given by the municipality.
Hebrew religious books were strewn across one ultra-Orthodox home. In another, Ethiopian Christian house, Amharic books lay scattered next to images of the Virgin Mary. In Mr Gregoire’s house, a shrine to Pope John Paul II lay untouched in his living room.
“This morning, since we hadn’t finished gathering our essentials, we came back to pick up what’s most important – some clothes, shoes, kitchen utensils. But honestly, most of our things were left behind,” he said.
“We don’t have children. It’s just my wife and me. The young girl with us is our niece. She lives with us, and she’s with us now.
“We’re waiting. We’re not working at the moment, and we don’t know when or how we’ll be able to work again. For now, we’re staying at the hotel. They told us it’s for a week, but after that – who knows? We’re waiting to see what the government or the municipality decides.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Upcoming games
SUNDAY
Brighton and Hove Albion v Southampton (5.30pm)
Leicester City v Everton (8pm)
MONDAY
Burnley v Newcastle United (midnight)
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE%20SQUAD
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Which products are to be taxed?
To be taxed:
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Products excluded from the ‘sweetened drink’ category would contain at least 75 per cent milk in a ready-to-drink form or as a milk substitute, baby formula, follow-up formula or baby food, beverages consumed for medicinal use and special dietary needs determined as per GCC Standardisation Organisation rules
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Honeymoonish
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Monster
Directed by: Anthony Mandler
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., John David Washington
3/5
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
Ticket prices
- Golden circle - Dh995
- Floor Standing - Dh495
- Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
- Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
- Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
- Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
- Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
- Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
Everton%20Fixtures
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
