Iran missile strikes injure more than 100 in two southern Israeli towns
Iranian state television said the strike on Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, was carried out "in response" to an attack on its Natanz nuclear site.
More than 100 people were wounded after Iranian missiles struck two southern Israeli towns when air defences failed to stop the incoming projectiles, medics and officials said.
Two direct hits ripped open the fronts of residential buildings and left large craters in the ground.
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Magen David Adom first responders reported 84 wounded in Arad — 10 of them seriously — following an earlier wave of injuries in nearby Dimona, where 33 people were hurt.
Iranian state television said the strike on Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, was carried out “in response” to an attack on its Natanz nuclear site.
Fire engines with flashing lights and dozens of emergency personnel swarmed the scenes.
Firefighters said that in both Dimona and Arad, interceptors were launched but failed to destroy the incoming threats, leading to two direct ballistic-missile impacts with warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms.
The Israeli military announced it would probe the apparent defensive lapse.
“The air defence systems operated but did not intercept the missile, we will investigate the incident and learn from it,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin wrote on X.
Local fire officials described “extensive damage” in Arad, where three buildings were hit and a blaze was ignited in one of them.
Iran claimed the attack on Arad and Dimona as a response to Israel attacks on their nuclear facilities
The military’s Home Front Command ordered schools in the area to switch to online classes.
Medic Riyad Abu Ajaj, speaking for the emergency services, said there was “extensive destruction” at the Arad strike site.
“There was a lot of chaos at the scene,” he added.
Rescue crews had only recently worked similar scenes in Dimona, about 25 kilometres to the southwest.
AFPTV footage showed a deep crater beside piles of rubble and twisted metal, with surrounding buildings blown-out windows and heavily damaged facades as emergency teams searched through the wreckage.
Medics said among the 33 injured in Dimona was a 10-year-old boy with shrapnel wounds; he was in serious but conscious condition.
Dimona hosts a facility widely believed to be linked to the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, though Israel has never officially acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons.
Israel maintains a long-standing policy of ambiguity about its nuclear programme; the plant is officially described as a research facility.
Iran has launched repeated daily missile barrages at Israel in retaliation for US‑Israeli strikes that began on 28 February.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would continue striking Iran and its allies after what he called a “very difficult evening”.