‘We heard the missile come’: tensions rise on Israel’s northern border

A home in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona that received a direct hit from a missile fired by Hezbollah. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

Amir Ottolenghi, 65, was at home with his wife in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona when a rocket struck his neighbour’s residence next door, smashing through the red-tiled roof and setting it on fire.

“We heard the missile come from the Lebanese side of the frontier, and then the boom-boom of Iron Dome [Israel’s anti-missile system]. Then another bang as the rocket hit the house. The instruction is to wait for 10 minutes. But we could hear the house opposite on fire. The sound of glass being blown out.”