TEL AVIV, Israel — Hours after the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Iran launched more than 40 missiles toward Israel on Sunday, wounding 23 people and destroying apartment buildings and homes in three cities.

The Israeli military meanwhile said Sunday that it has recovered the remains of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip. At least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike and 22 wounded while waiting for humanitarian aid, according to a local hospital.

The military identified the hostage remains as those of Yonatan Samerano, 21; Ofra Keidar, 70; and Shay Levinson, 19. All three were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel that ignited the ongoing war. The militant group is still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.

The military did not provide any details about the recovery operation, and it was unclear if the airstrike was related to it.

“The campaign to return the hostages continues consistently and is happening alongside the campaign against Iran,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Kobi Samerano said in a Facebook post that his son’s remains were returned on what would have been Yonatan’s 23rd birthday.

Iran-backed Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Israel will continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. Even then, he has said Israel will maintain lasting control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population, plans the Palestinians and others view as forcible expulsion.

In Tel Aviv, at an Iranian missile impact site, the blast sheared off the face of a multistory residential building and damaged several others — including a nursing home — in a radius of hundreds of yards. But few people were wounded, as many residents had been evacuated and others made it to bomb shelters.

Deputy Mayor Haim Goren, who assisted at the scene, said it was nevertheless “miraculous” that more people were not hurt. Relatives and health aides helped residents — many with wheelchairs or walkers — to leave the nursing home, where windows were blown out up to the top on the 11th floor.

“It’s like a typhoon came through my apartment,” said Ofer Berger, who lives near the impact site on the seventh floor of a high-rise. “All of the apartments in this area are destroyed.”

Emergency services said one person was moderately wounded by shrapnel in Sunday’s missile barrage while dozens of others were lightly injured.

Berger said he hoped the war with Iran would end soon. “Most of the tit-for-tat strikes like this end with a lot of tears,” he said.

Residents sat with their pets and suitcases outside the damaged buildings. One person sat next to a shopping cart filled with Buddha statues and a child’s bicycle.

Families gathered what they could and stepped gingerly around piles of glass and twisted metal. Dozens of volunteers from an organization called “One Heart” showed up to help residents salvage their belongings.

Mira Goshen, 79, said her entire apartment was destroyed.

“My mamad was shaking like a leaf, and I thought it was the end of the world,” Goshen said, referring to the reinforced safe rooms that are required in all new construction. She said the shelter had saved her life. In some areas where entire homes were flattened, the reinforced rooms stood intact.

Goshen said she was more focused on where she would go next than on the U.S. strikes on Iran and their aftermath.

“I’m far away from politics, and what I think, it doesn’t matter actually, because they don’t listen to ordinary people,” she said.

In Gaza, four people were killed Sunday in an airstrike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. It said another 22 people were wounded while waiting for aid trucks.

Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds seeking desperately needed food, killing hundreds of people in recent weeks. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

Separately, World Central Kitchen, the charity run by celebrity chef José Andrés, said it had resumed the distribution of hot meals in Gaza for the first time in six weeks after shutting down because of Israel’s blockade, which was loosened last month amid fears of famine.