Over 100 people were injured, including a five-year-old girl, after Iran launched a wave of missile strikes at Southern Israeli cities and came dangerously close to hitting a nuclear facility.
Iranian missiles struck the Israeli cities of Dimona and Arad today when the Islamic Republic launched a retaliatory barrage after their nuclear site at Natanz was hit in a United States-Israeli airstrike.
Dimona is home to the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, which is widely suspected of producing nuclear material for Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Israel has never acknowledged whether it has nuclear weapons.
At least 88 people were injured in the strike on Arad, including a five-year-old girl, causing widespresd damage to buildings. Ten were seriously injured.
The Dimona strike caused 59 injuries, including a 10-year-old boy who is in serious condition.
“It was a very difficult scene, when I arrived I treated about 40 casualties,” United Hatzallah medic Tomer Segev said.
The strikes caused widespread fears that Iran had launched a new kind of missile that is capable of penetrating Israel’s extensive air defenses, but an IDF spokesman said that this is not the case.
“The air defense systems operated but did not intercept the missile. We will investigate the incident and learn from it. This is not a special or unfamiliar type of munition,” IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a post on X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed his prayers for those injured, and said that the Jewish state is determined to continue striking its enemies.
“I spoke with the Mayor of Arad, Yair Maayan, and asked him to convey, on behalf of all Israeli citizens, our prayers for the peace of the injured… We are determined to continue to strike our enemies on all fronts,” The Israeli PM said in a statement.
Israeli Security Minister Ben Gvir was on site to tour the damage after the attack, and told the media that Israel’s war against Iran was a war they must keep fighting “to win.”
Israel’s Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced that all in-person learning would be canceled in Israeli schools following the strikes.
Schools had finally begun to reopen in areas deemed to be low risk after they were closed for two weeks after the war with Iran commenced.
Iranian-proxy group Hezbollah wounded at least 19 people on strikes on civilian centers in Israel’s north earlier in the day.
A kindergarten in the central Israeli city Rishon Lezion was damaged by an Iranian cluster missile early Saturday.
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