Iranian missiles sow panic, destruction in Israeli towns
A missile from Iran hit Franky’s town of Arad, hours after another hit Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, injuring dozens of people and severely damaging entire apartment blocks.
Franky ran for shelter with his family as air raid sirens blared, signaling an impending attack.
“There was a ‘boom, boom!'” near the crash site, where an AFP reporter saw three damaged buildings and firefighters reported the fire. “I heard his voice, my mother was screaming,” he said.
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“It was terrible… this town has never seen anything like this before,” the teenager told AFP.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said that 84 injured people, 10 of them seriously, from the Arad region were taken to hospitals. Although police used loudspeakers to warn residents not to approach, dozens of people were still in the area early Sunday, taking photos or calling friends and family to share details of the devastation.
While rescue teams searched the rubble to make sure all the injured were rescued, security forces patrolled the streets with flashlights.
A crater of about five meters (16 feet) was left in the middle of the bombed buildings.
Police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told AFP that “the operation will take several hours” for authorities to clear the scene and ensure all residents are accounted for.
failed intervention
An earlier missile strike had hit the town of Dimona, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of Arad.
Dimona is home to a facility widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never confirmed it has nuclear weapons.
Israel maintains a policy of uncertainty regarding its nuclear program, and the facility is officially focused on research.
The missile crashed about five kilometers from the facility, injuring about 30 people, according to rescue teams.
Online videos show the missile being engulfed by a fireball and falling to the ground.
AFP images showed heavy damage to an apartment building next to a crater in the ground. Two structures collapsed with debris, including concrete blocks, littering the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “a very difficult evening in the battle for our future.”
“We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts,” Netanyahu told Arad’s mayor, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office.
Military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin wrote to X, “air defense systems worked but could not intercept the missile, we will investigate the incident.”
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Israeli media shared images from Arad and Dimona of scenes of attacks that have been repeated across the country since the war began with US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28.
In the security camera footage broadcast by Israeli channels, it is seen that people are thrown to the ground while windows are broken by the force of the explosion.
Since the start of the war, Iranian missile strikes have killed 15 people in Israel as well as four Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank.
Saturday’s attacks on Dimona and Arad were among the Iranian attacks that, although not the deadliest, caused the most damage to Israel.
The launches come as the United States and Israel continue to strike targets across Iran, which they say are weakening the Islamic Republic’s capabilities.
