Tetiana Kurakova believed she had left the devastation of war behind when she fled Ukraine in 2022, escaping the gaping holes in buildings, streets choked with rubble, and the pervasive fear of airstrikes.
The 40-year-old makeup artist had painstakingly rebuilt her life in the Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam, aided by friends who helped her relaunch her career.
However, early on Sunday, an Iranian missile tore through the building adjacent to hers, shattering her newfound peace.
The strike claimed nine lives, wounded dozens, and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes, including Kurakova’s.
It marked the deadliest single strike from Iran in a week-long conflict that erupted on Friday, following Israeli airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites, as well as top generals and nuclear scientists.
In retaliation, Iran has launched approximately 450 missiles and hundreds of drones.
Days later, sheltering in a Tel Aviv hotel alongside 250 other evacuees from Bat Yam, Ms Kurakova wept as she recounted the impact of the missile.
The blast “sheared the face off of a multistory apartment building and destroyed many buildings around it,” leaving a landscape eerily reminiscent of the war she had sought to escape.
“It felt like a nightmare. I can’t even describe how big it was,” she said. “I had a panic attack. I just sat on the road, leaned on (my friend) Masha, and started to cry, to sob from all the misery that had happened.”
Kurakova is one of around 30,000 Ukrainians who have made Israel their home since Russia’s war in Ukraine began, about half of whom have gained citizenship through their Jewish heritage, according to Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration.
Kurakova, who does not have citizenship, left home via Poland after about a month spent hiding from constant strikes in early 2022. She ended up in Israel, where she had a number of friends and some professional contacts.
Five of the victims in the Bat Yam strike were Ukrainians from the same family who had come to Israel to escape the war and receive medical treatment for a 7-year-old girl who had blood cancer, Israeli media reported.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Israel would not provide details on individuals, citing privacy concerns. It said it was working to repatriate the bodies, but faced challenges because Israel’s airspace is closed due to ongoing attacks.
Bat Yam has a large population of residents from the former Soviet Union, many of whom emigrated in a wave in the early 1990s, and was a natural place for many newly arrived Ukrainians to settle.
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