Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns wounded over 100 people, causing extensive damage after air defence systems failed to intercept the projectiles.
ARAD, Israel: Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns wounded more than 100 people on Saturday. Medics reported the casualties after Israeli air defence systems failed to intercept the ballistic missiles.
The two direct hits tore open the fronts of residential buildings and carved craters into the ground. Magen David Adom first responders said 84 people were wounded in the town of Arad, 10 of them seriously.
This came hours after 33 people were wounded in nearby Dimona. Iranian state TV said the missile attack on Dimona, which houses a nuclear facility, was a “response” to an earlier strike on its own nuclear site at Natanz.
AFP footage from Arad showed rescue workers sifting through rubble for wounded people in a bombed-out building. Fire engines with their lights flashing were at the scene along with dozens of emergency service members.
Firefighters said that in “both Dimona and Arad, interceptors were launched that failed to hit the threats, resulting in two direct hits by ballistic missiles with warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms”. The Israeli military said it would investigate the issue.
“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. The local fire service reported “extensive damage” in Arad, with three buildings affected and a blaze sparked in one.
The military’s Home Front Command ordered schools in the area to move classes online. Medic Riyad Abu Ajaj described “extensive destruction” at the site of the strike.
“There was a lot of chaos at the scene,” he said. The rescue operations came not long after similar scenes in Dimona, around 25 kilometres to the southwest.
AFPTV footage from Dimona showed a large crater gouged into the ground next to piles of rubble and twisted metal. Surrounding buildings had their windows blown out and facades heavily damaged as emergency workers combed through the site.
Medics said they treated 33 people injured in the town, including a 10-year-old boy with shrapnel wounds who was in serious condition but conscious. Dimona hosts a facility widely believed to possess the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons.
Iran has fired repeated barrages of missiles at Israel daily in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks that started on February 28. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue striking Iran and its allies after what he called a “very difficult evening”.
The Sun Malaysia
