Iranian missile fired after US strikes causes heavy damage but few injuries in Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hours after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Iran launched more than 40 missiles toward Israel on Sunday, wounding 23 people and destroying apartment buildings and homes in three cities.

At an impact site in Tel Aviv, the blast had sheared off the face of a multistory residential building and damaged several others — including a nursing home — in a radius of hundreds of meters (yards). But few people were wounded, as many residents had been evacuated and others made it to bomb shelters.

Deputy Mayor Haim Goren, who assisted at the scene, said it was nevertheless "miraculous" that more people were not hurt. Relatives and health aides helped residents — many with wheelchairs or walkers — to leave the nursing home, where windows were blown out up to the top on the 11th floor.

“It’s like a typhoon came through my apartment,” said Ofer Berger, who lives near the impact site on the seventh floor of a high-rise. “All of the apartments in this area are destroyed,” he said.

Emergency services said one person was moderately wounded by shrapnel in Sunday's missile barrage while dozens of others were lightly injured.

Berger said he hoped the war with Iran would end soon. “Most of the tit-for-tat strikes like this end with a lot of tears,” he said.

Residents sat with their pets and suitcases outside the damaged buildings. One person sat next to a shopping cart filled with Buddha statues and a child’s bicycle.

Families gathered what they could and stepped gingerly around piles of glass and twisted metal. Dozens of volunteers from an organization called “One Heart” showed up to help residents salvage their belongings.

Strikes have displaced more than 9,000 people from their homes since the start of the war, according to the Israeli military. Missiles have damaged 240 residential buildings, including more than 2,000 individual apartments.

Mira Goshen, 79, said her entire apartment was destroyed.

“My mamad was shaking like a leaf, and I thought it was the end of the world,” Goshen said, referring to the reinforced safe rooms that are required in all new construction. She said the shelter had saved her life. In some areas where entire homes were flattened, the reinforced rooms stood intact.

Goshen’s pet bird, Chica, survived an 11-story drop when her cage was knocked off the balcony by the explosion. A rescuer retrieved her, and she was trembling and burrowing into Goshen's neck hours later as Goshen spoke with neighbors and authorities outside her building.

Hours later, municipality workers worked to sweep up the the shattered glass and remove debris, while others handed out sandwiches and water at an aid station.

Several businesses on a nearby street had their windows blown out, and the stores were littered with broken glass amid baked goods, children's clothes and books. Workers at a supermarket stacked crates of fruit in front of a shattered front window and opened for shoppers, who packed the aisles.

Residents appeared calm in the aftermath of Sunday's strike, but Goren said the nightly barrages, the frantic running to shelters and the close confines inside them are taking a toll.

“There’s a lot of stress and pressure building, lots of nerves,” the deputy mayor said. Mutual aid groups are working around the clock to match families in need with shelters and support, and the municipality is working to convert parking garages, bus stations and train stations to temporary shelters.

Goshen said she was more focused on where she would go next than on the U.S. strikes on Iran and their aftermath.

“I'm far away from politics, and what I think, it doesn't matter actually, because they don't listen to ordinary people,” she said.

A damaged building after a missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Israeli soldiers inspect the site struck by a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Israeli border police officers help residents to evacuate from a building damaged in an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

People react next to the site of a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Israeli soldiers inspect the site struck by a direct missile strike launched from Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states after at least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in the capital, Caracas.

The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas. Another military installation in the capital was without power.

People in various neighborhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas.

“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”

Venezuela’s government, in the statement, called on its supporters to take to the streets.

“People to the streets!” the statement said. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”

The statement added that President Nicolás Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.”

This comes as the U.S. military has been targeting, in recent days, alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking.

Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the U.S. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes on boats in September.

U.S. President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The U.S. has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.

The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.

Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on the explosions in Caracas on Saturday, showing images of the Venezuelan capital. Iran has been close to Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared enmity of the U.S.

Pedestrians walk past the Miraflores presidential palace after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Residents evacuate a building near the Miraflores presidential palace after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Pedestrians run after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)