BAT YAM, Israel — Concrete dust still clings to cars on streets hundreds of yards away from where the Iranian ballistic missile struck, their windows shattered. Buildings are pocked with broken windows and mangled shutters, some with gaping holes where a wall used to be. At the center of the strike, one side of the 10-story apartment building has been shaved off and reduced to a pile of concrete and metal. Yet the whole side of the building where the safe rooms are located remains intact. Complete walls of surrounding buildings have been blown off, and the ground below is littered with debris from the wreckage. A gas station mere yards away was left unscathed — a reminder of how much worse the damage could have been. 

These 7,500 square feet of destruction are what remain a week and a half after the missile attack — the deadliest of the 12-day Israel-Iran war, which killed 10 people and injured scores more — in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood in the beachside Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. 

In total, 20 buildings will need to be demolished and rebuilt, while another 60 in various stages of destruction have been deemed structurally sound, though they will require extensive repairs to make them livable again.

A few residents of the neighborhood, brought by municipal bus from the hotel where they were evacuated, arrived in a daze to the blast site on Tuesday, walking toward what were once their homes to salvage what belongings they could. They were only permitted to collect 20 kilograms (44 pounds) worth of items for safety reasons, explained Rinat Gabai, Bat Yam’s emergency response manager, on a recent visit to the site with American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee field coordinator Yael Ben Nun and Ran Rovner, JDC-Israel director of marketing and organizational knowledge. 

Gabai now faces the challenge of assisting some 800 families with diverse needs — from a reserve soldier who returned from Gaza to find his home destroyed, to elderly Russian-speaking immigrants, at-risk families and people with disabilities. Some residents have chosen to stay in their damaged homes, complicating outreach to them by the welfare department, she said. As there are no suitable hotels in Bat Yam, residents have been evacuated to hotels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, making it more difficult for the city’s welfare department to reach them, she added. 

They have received many donations from well-meaning organizations, she said, but it was Ben Nun of JDC who asked the important question: What do you need?

“[Yael] knew to ask the question, which gave me a second to reflect on what it is that we need,” said Gabai. “Because to say what I need today, when everyone is really with us, [is one thing]. But the question is, will they be with us tomorrow, because here we need partners for the long term. This will be a long story. In the end, it is not just the rebuilding; we also have to create a community infrastructure here. This is something that the civil society can do faster than the municipality.”

Ben Nun noted that JDC’s broad perspective and years of experience working with vulnerable populations in Bat Yam allowed it to quickly adapt to changing needs. She added that a truck carrying specific supplies requested by the municipal hotel coordinators — such as properly sized clothing donated from suppliers’ overstock — has already been sent out, with another delivery planned soon.

Bat Yam is among the four cities receiving a total of $650,000 in a targeted multipronged emergency aid initiative including flexible funding, humanitarian aid, medical and rescue equipment and trainings and community care workers from the JDC following the missile attacks since the war with Iran began June 13, which left 28 dead — including 10 in Bat Yam. The aid effort focuses on vulnerable populations in four cities hit by Iranian attacks: Tamra, Bat Yam, Bnei Brak and Beersheva, which was added after a missile strike on Tuesday — just before the ceasefire — killed four people in a direct hit on a residential building.

Funding for the initiative is expected to expand soon, said Rovner. So far since June 13, JDC has raised a total of $3.7 million (NIS 12.5 million) for its emergency efforts, he added. Much of the funding was provided by the Jewish Federations of North America, as well as additional Jewish federations — UJA-Federation of New York, Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest (N.J.), Jewish Nevada and the Jewish Federation of San Diego, along with private foundations and individual donors worldwide. 

The emergency aid package addresses the urgent local needs particularly for the evacuated residents and is being coordinated with NGO partner Shinua Hevrati (“Social Mobility”) to distribute food, medicine, clothing, hygiene supplies and other basic necessities, as well as medical equipment, mattresses and entertainment kits for shelters.

Additionally, JDC has expanded its network of 71 community caseworkers with two new caseworkers each in Bat Yam and Bnei Brak and one in the northern Arab Israeli village of Tamra to ensure that elderly individuals and people with disabilities receive essential medical and mental health services, emotional support, safety guidance and access to social benefits, said Rovner. As conditions evolve, JDC is prepared to scale its support and deploy additional caseworkers, he said.

“In times of crisis, needs surge dramatically and the most vulnerable don’t know how to shout strong enough [to be heard] and they may fall between the cracks,” said Rovner, noting that in each city the growing and complex needs are overwhelming local welfare departments, so the additional JDC community case workers can handle the toughest cases and ease the pressure on the municipalities.The caseworkers are now mapping the new needs and will likely be able to begin their home visits by next week, he said.

The model of the community caseworkers in Israel was developed in the Second Lebanon War, and it has proven itself to be the most effective method of providing the vulnerable populations with the needed care, he said.

Additional aid is being provided in the form of emotional therapy for adults and the JDC’s innovative Hibuki trauma therapy program, which helps young children process trauma by projecting emotions onto a therapeutic stuffed dog with long, comforting arms, which has also been introduced in several hotels where the evacuees are currently living. Additionally, a mobile information unit is visiting hotels to inform evacuees of their legal rights, he said.

The Bat Yam neighborhood was home to numerous vulnerable populations already before the attack, Avital Rosenberger, JDC-Israel’s humanitarian operation director,  told eJewishPhilanthropy. Now the challenges those affected by the missile attack face has been made worse by the loss of lives and property, and increasing trauma and new population groups also have become vulnerable.

“It’s like a double punch,” Rosenberger said. “There are a lot of new vulnerable populations that we have to get to know now and understand what the new needs are. It is like rebuilding the system.”

JDC’s emergency response professionals are working closely with the four local municipalities to assess both immediate and emerging needs and to identify effective solutions, such as providing mattresses and laundry solutions, she said.

“There are all kinds of needs. We have kind of a think tank, and we’ll think about it and we’ll figure it out. Sometimes just the fact that we’re there and say let’s think about it together, let’s make the connections, we are here for you, makes all the difference,” she said.

Adding to the complexity of the situation is the fact that many of the residents who lost homes were renters, while the government compensation package is intended for the property owners. Many people will now need to be looking for affordable housing in an increasingly expensive market, said Rovner.

Tehila Spivak, 30, a single mother of two, who was evacuated to a hotel in south Tel Aviv, said she was told that the rental apartment where she used to live with her two children would be repaired by Sunday, but she is doubtful that will happen. Meanwhile, she hasn’t gone back to try to retrieve any of their belongings, as without a support system, she has no one to look after her children, she said, and her 5-year-old son has reverted to acting-out behavior and biting her, she said. 

“It’s hard, really hard,” she said. “I don’t really know yet [what kind of help to ask for]. I heard there might be an option for temporary housing. I don’t know how much or what exactly. I’m just very busy with the kids — I don’t have time for anything. I don’t have time to even think — just to take a moment to organize things in my head.”