Iranian missile strikes targeting two southern Israeli towns on Saturday left more than 100 people wounded after the nation’s air defense systems failed to intercept the incoming projectiles.
The direct hits caused significant destruction, tearing open residential buildings and leaving large craters in the ground. According to Magen David Adom first responders, 84 people were injured in Arad—10 of them seriously—just hours after a separate strike in nearby Dimona wounded 33 others.
Iranian state TV characterized the attack on Dimona, which is home to a nuclear facility, as a “response” to a previous strike on its own nuclear site at Natanz.
Footage from Arad showed emergency workers sifting through rubble in bombed-out buildings, while the local fire service reported “extensive damage” affecting three structures and sparking a blaze in one.
Medic Riyad Abu Ajaj described the aftermath as “extensive destruction” in a statement from the rescue organization, noting that “there was a lot of chaos at the scene.”
In Dimona, located roughly 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the southwest, similar scenes of devastation were recorded. Footage showed a massive crater surrounded by piles of twisted metal and buildings with blown-out windows.
Among the 33 injured in the town was a boy with shrapnel wounds who was reported to be in serious but conscious condition.
While Israel maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear program, Dimona is widely believed to house the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.
Following the strikes, Israel’s education ministry ordered all classes to move online, ending in-person instruction nationwide.
The Israeli military has launched an inquiry into why the projectiles were not stopped.
“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.
These latest barrages are part of daily retaliatory strikes by Iran following US-Israeli attacks that began on February 28.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation following the events, vowing to continue strikes against Iran and its allies after what he described as a “very difficult evening”.
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