A live broadcast in Israel has captured the moment a missile was launched as Europe correspondent Mimi Becker prepared to go on air from Eilat, at Israel’s southern tip.
Becker is in Eilat covering the escalating Middle East conflict, which began when Israel and the United States launched joint strikes on Iran on Saturday. Iran remained under attack overnight and responded with a wave of retaliatory strikes aimed at Israel and US military bases across the region.
Speaking from Eilat, Becker described seeing the launch in real time. “We’ve just seen a missile launched here as we’re standing here on the balcony,” she said. “It was incredibly close and incredibly loud.”
She said there was little indication the area was about to be affected. “We hadn’t heard any sort of real warning systems here in the area that we’re in, we’re very close to the border of Jordan, it’s about a 10-minute stretch from Jordan. We’ve just made our way here into Israel and we just heard it echo through and then you could see the smoke take over the sky.”
Becker said the moment reflected the broader situation unfolding across the region. “And this is what is happening right across parts of Israel and Iran as both countries continue to fire at one another,” she said. “This is of course the second day of the strikes and Israel says that it would be dominating the skies and that is exactly what we’ve just seen here first hand.”
The United States and Israel continued striking Iran for a second day following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday. The US revealed overnight that three service members had been killed as part of Operation Epic Fury, which President Donald Trump said was ahead of schedule and “moving along rapidly”.
On Sunday, Israel said it struck at “the heart of Tehran”, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of “growing intensity” in the coming days. Iran has vowed to avenge the death of its supreme leader, launching retaliatory attacks targeting Israel and US military bases in the region, as well as the Saudi capital and Dubai.
