Tel Aviv — Israel is grappling with one of its most terrifying nights in decades as Iranian missiles appeared to bypass key layers of air defences, slamming into the Tel Aviv area and turning parts of the coastal metropolis into a landscape of flames, shattered glass and howling sirens.

Residents report almost no warning before the first blasts. Sirens wailed, then the sky lit up with only a handful of interceptor trails before multiple fireballs erupted over highways, residential towers and an industrial zone south of the city. Streets were gouged open, cars tossed aside and apartment blocks left with gaping holes as power flickered and smoke rolled through central neighbourhoods.

IDF officials admit that “a limited number of advanced missiles” exploited gaps between Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow batteries, using erratic flight paths and decoy warheads to slip through. Emergency rooms across Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Holon are overwhelmed with burn and shrapnel victims, while search‑and‑rescue teams comb collapsed structures for those still trapped beneath concrete and twisted steel.

In Tehran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is celebrating what it calls “a breakthrough operation,” boasting that “Zionist defences have been pierced” and promising that further salvos will follow unless Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran cease. State TV loops footage of launches and animated strike maps labelled “Tel Aviv under fire.”

Israel’s war cabinet has responded with vows of a “crushing, sustained answer,” authorising expanded strikes on Iranian missile brigades, command centres and proxy forces across the region. But analysts warn that the psychological damage may be as severe as the physical: for a public long told that layered defences could shield its cities, the sight of Tel Aviv burning under missiles that got through has shattered a sense of invulnerability — and pushed the conflict into a far more volatile and emotional phase.