Iranian missile strikes have wounded about 200 people in southern Israel, after air defence systems failed to intercept projectiles that hit two cities close to a nuclear facility.
Among the injured in the attacks on Arad and Dimona were a 12-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, both reported to be in serious condition. The Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported early indications of possible deaths, though there was no official confirmation.
In Tel Aviv, 15 more people were injured on Sunday in a separate attack involving a cluster bomb. The attacks are adding to mounting pressure on Israel’s air defence systems, with Iranian strikes increasingly testing their limits.
Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said it treated 175 people wounded in the attacks on Arad and Dimona, 36 of whom remained in hospital as of Sunday morning. Other people reported minor injuries and were treated by paramedics at the scene. About 60 people were wounded in Dimona and more than 115 injured in Arad were taken to Soroka.
A mass-casualty incident was declared at the hospital as emergency teams responded to multiple impact sites.
Eli Bin, the chief executive of Magen David Adom, Israel’s ambulance service, said some people were believed to be trapped in damaged buildings in Arad. He described the scene as “an event of enormous magnitude”, adding that there were concerns for individuals who remained unaccounted for.
According to preliminary assessments, one of the missiles – reportedly carrying a conventional warhead weighing several hundred kilograms – struck between residential buildings, causing structural damage and igniting fires in surrounding properties.
Footage circulating online appeared to show the missile impact occurring seconds after warning sirens were activated, though the timing could not be independently verified.
The Israeli air force said it had opened an investigation into the apparent failure to intercept the missile that struck Arad. A parallel inquiry has been launched by the Home Front Command into the circumstances of the impact.
“The air defence 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,” the IDF spokesperson Brig Gen Effie Defrin posted on X.
Defrin added: “Our hearts are with the residents of Arad and Dimona tonight.”
Unverified reports suggested one building had partially collapsed with people inside, while another caught fire, raising fears the death toll could rise as rescue operations continue.
The police commissioner Danny Levy, speaking at the scene of the strike in Arad, said authorities did not believe anyone was missing, though searches of the rubble were continuing. “We won’t leave until we are certain no one remains unaccounted for,” Levy said, adding that teams were using both advanced technology and manual searches to comb through the debris.
According to a Home Front Command investigation, most of those injured were not inside bomb shelters. The mother of the injured 12-year-old boy told the Kan public broadcaster that he hadn’t managed to reach the bomb shelter by the time the missile struck.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement on the “very difficult evening in the campaign for our future” after the strike in Arad. “We will continue to strike our enemies on all fronts with determination,” he said.
The Israeli air force and Home Front Command are also examining the earlier strike in Dimona, a city in the Negev desert, 30km to the south-east of Beersheba and near the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, widely believed to be at the heart of Israel’s undeclared nuclear programme.
Earlier in the evening, Iranian state-linked media said the strikes on Dimona were carried out in response to alleged attacks by the US and Israel on nuclear facilities in Bushehr and Natanz. Israel has denied carrying out any strike on Natanz.
“The enemy has once again received an unforgettable lesson,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency said, in a statement that could not be independently verified. “No area is safe from Iranian missiles.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was aware of reports that a projectile had struck the city but had received no indication of damage to the nuclear facility. The agency added that no abnormal radiation levels had been detected and that it was continuing to monitor the situation.
The Natanz facility hosts underground centrifuges to enrich uranium for Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and was already damaged in last year’s June war. The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, repeated a “call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident” after the strike on Natanz.
In Israel air raid sirens were triggered multiple times in Dimona overnight, underscoring the ongoing threat.
Earlier this week, Israel’s Home Front Command had eased some wartime restrictions in parts of the country, including Dimona, allowing schools and other educational institutions to reopen.
An Iranian ballistic missile launched at central Israel on Sunday is believed to have carried a cluster munition warhead, dispersing bomblets across a wide area of the Tel Aviv region.
Emergency services and rescue teams responded to reports of multiple impacts across the city. Magen David Adom said it treated 15 people, most of them lightly injured, after the strike.
