The blast struck without warning in the Palestinian town of Beit Awa, sending a hail of missile fragments through a beauty salon and killing four women inside.
The first Palestinian deaths in the Middle East war have sharpened a sense of helplessness as they find themselves ensnared in the crossfire of yet another conflict.
Issa Masalmeh was sitting nearby when a loud bang startled him to his feet at around 9:30 pm on Wednesday and he saw debris hurtling down from the sky.
"It fell without any warning. There was no alert," the 60-year-old resident told AFP.
Medics initially said three women died at the scene. A fourth, who was six months pregnant, succumbed to her wounds later in hospital.
"The women who died, their bodies were torn apart," Masalmeh said.
They all were at the salon the day before the start of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"We are in a state of shock and incomprehension over why we are the ones paying the price for a situation we have nothing to do with," Fawzi Abu Leil, the mayor of Dura, told AFP.
"It was so sudden and unexpected -- a tragedy and a massacre that no one can fathom."
Hours after the carnage, firefighters were still hosing away the blood from the mangled metal container that had housed the beauty salon.
"We are the victims. It's not our war," said Abdelrazek Masalmeh, a 32-year-old neuroscience researcher.
