Another Filipina dead in Israel as US-led war on Iran grinds into sixth week

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipina was killed alongside her Israeli husband when an Iranian missile slammed into a building in Haifa in northwestern Israel on Sunday, April 5 — making her the second Filipino to die since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran five weeks ago. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed her death on Tuesday, April 7, but withheld her name at the family's request for privacy.

"We join the Filipino community in praying for her eternal rest and for strength for her family during this time of profound loss," the department said in its statement.

The Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv is coordinating the repatriation of her remains, though the DFA acknowledged that the "current travel situation" in the region could complicate the process. Israeli airspace has been intermittently shut down since the war began.

Her death follows that of Mary Ann Velazquez de Vera, a 32-year-old caregiver from Pangasinan who was killed by shrapnel while helping her elderly ward reach a bomb shelter during an Iranian missile strike on Tel Aviv on February 28. 

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had confirmed De Vera's death personally, calling her a casualty of the retaliatory strikes Iran launched after the US and Israel hit Iranian territory.

On February 28, the US and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on sites across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and dozens of top officials. The stated aims were to destroy Iran's nuclear and missile programs and bring about regime change, though this has been put to question by US President Donald Trump's pronouncements on the conflict.

There are roughly 30,000 Filipino nationals in Israel as of November 2025, part of more than a million Filipino workers across the Middle East now caught in a widening war zone.