Two direct impacts rip open the fronts of residential buildings and carve deep craters into the ground
First responders inspect the site of an Iranian missile strike in Arad early on March 22, 2026 PHOTO: AFP
Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns wounded more than 100 people on Saturday, medics reported, after Israeli air defense systems failed to stop the incoming projectiles.
The two direct impacts ripped open the fronts of residential buildings and carved deep craters into the ground.
Magen David Adom responders said 84 people were injured in the town of Arad, 10 of them seriously, hours after 33 were wounded in nearby Dimona.
Iranian state television said the missile strike on Dimona, which contains a nuclear facility, was a “response” to an earlier attack on its own nuclear site at Natanz.
AFP footage from Arad showed rescue crews searching through rubble for injured people in a heavily damaged building.
Fire trucks with flashing lights were at the scene alongside dozens of emergency personnel.
The Israeli military said it would review the failed interception.
“The air defense systems operated but did not intercept the missile. We will investigate the incident and learn from it,” military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin wrote on X.
The local fire service said there was “extensive damage” in Arad, with three buildings affected and a fire ignited in one of them.
Read: Iran’s president says immediate cessation of US-Israeli aggression needed to end war
Medic Riyad Abu Ajaj described “extensive destruction” at the strike site in a statement from the organisation. “There was a lot of chaos at the scene,” he said.
The rescue efforts followed similar scenes in Dimona, about 25 kilometers to the southwest.
AFPTV footage from the area showed a large crater gouged into the ground next to piles of debris and twisted metal.
Nearby buildings had windows shattered and facades badly damaged as emergency workers searched the site.
Medics said they treated 33 people injured in the town, including a boy with shrapnel wounds who was in serious condition but conscious.
Dimona hosts a facility widely believed to hold the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons.
Israel has maintained a policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear program, and the facility officially focuses on research.
After the strikes in the south, Israel’s education ministry ordered all classes to move online, canceling in-person instruction in the few remaining areas that still had it.
Iran has launched repeated waves of missiles at Israel daily in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks that began on Feb. 28.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue targeting Iran and its allies after what he described as a “very difficult evening.”
