Acre Family Survives Hezbollah Rocket Strike by Hiding in Shoe Closet

A Jewish family in Acre narrowly escaped death on Sunday when a Hezbollah drone struck their home during a massive barrage of rockets and drones that rained down on northern Israel. The family survived by hiding in a shoe closet, which withstood the force of the explosion.

The attack was part of a Hezbollah retaliation involving some 250 rockets and drones launched between 5:30 and 7:00 AM. The assault followed an IDF preemptive strike in South Lebanon that destroyed thousands of launchers aimed at sensitive targets as far south as Tel Aviv.

Ami Saada, the father of the family, recounted the terrifying experience on Radio 104.5FM. “My wife was in the bedroom upstairs with our four daughters. She had a premonition and woke them up just a minute before the Red Alert siren sounded,” Saada said. “She took them downstairs to our protected space, which is a shoe closet built into a concrete shaft.”

As the family huddled inside the closet, they heard a massive explosion that shook the entire house. “I had just left for work, and my wife called me, telling me to hurry back,” Saada added. The closet, only a meter wide, barely accommodated the five family members, but its reinforced structure protected them from the blast.

The damage to their home was extensive. “I have no house [left] to live in,” Saada lamented. “The girls’ rooms are destroyed—glass everywhere, holes in the walls, and the ceilings have collapsed.” He emphasized how close his daughters came to serious injury or worse, describing how their beds were covered in sharp shards of glass.

His 11-year-old daughter told Channel 11 that the drone’s crash caused a power outage. “We couldn’t see anything, and there was smoke. We felt suffocated and burned,” she said. “Your room was destroyed. You don’t have a room, you don’t have anywhere to sleep. It’s really sad.”

The family is being temporarily housed in a local hotel as they recover from the ordeal. Other homes and a nursery school in Acre were also hit by the barrage, with residents describing their apartments filled with glass shards from shattered windows.

One resident, who runs a business from home, shared how his computers and equipment were destroyed in the attack. Fortunately, he and his family were unharmed as they were on their way to the building’s bomb shelter when the rocket struck nearby.

Acre Mayor Amichai Ben-Shlush described the events as a “huge miracle” and praised residents for following safety instructions. “What happened this morning was a difficult situation—shrapnel from interceptor rockets, an entire building destroyed, stressed residents. People were miraculously saved because they heeded instructions,” he told Radio 104.5FM.

The only fatality reported from the Hezbollah attack was Petty Officer 1st Class David Moshe Ben Shitrit, who died when either fragments of an Iron Dome interceptor or the interceptor itself hit his boat off the Israeli coast. The IDF is investigating the incident.

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