Back-to-Back Missile Strikes Hit Southern Israel, Close to 100 Wounded

Among the wounded was a 12-year-old boy who was seriously injured by shrapnel and remains in serious condition.

By United with Israel staff

Iranian missile strikes hit southern Israel on Saturday night, striking the cities of Dimona and Arad within hours of each other, wounding dozens and causing significant damage to residential areas as air defense systems failed to intercept both missiles.

The first strike occurred Saturday evening in Dimona, where an Iranian ballistic missile hit a residential area, injuring dozens of people and damaging nearby buildings. Emergency services reported that 47 people were taken to the hospital following the impact.

Among the wounded was a 12-year-old boy who was seriously injured by shrapnel and remains in serious condition at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. A woman in her 30s was moderately injured by glass shards, while dozens of others suffered light injuries from shrapnel or while running to shelters. Additional residents were treated for acute anxiety.

Rescue officials said the missile carried a large warhead, which caused extensive damage to homes and surrounding structures. The Israel Defense Forces said air defense systems attempted to intercept the missile but failed, and the incident is under investigation.

Dimona is widely known as the center of Israel’s nuclear research activity, with key facilities located in the surrounding Negev region, though Israel maintains its long-standing policy of nuclear ambiguity.

Several hours later, another Iranian missile struck the southern city of Arad, causing a mass casualty incident and significantly expanding the scale of the night’s attacks.

Emergency responders treated dozens of wounded at the scene, and authorities declared a mass casualty event. Medical teams reported that roughly 90 people were injured, including about 10 in serious condition. Among the seriously wounded was a young girl, approximately five years old.

The missile impact caused extensive destruction across multiple residential buildings, with several structures heavily damaged and rescue teams searching the area for possible trapped residents.

The Arad strike marked the second interception failure within roughly two hours, raising concerns about air defense performance during the barrage.

At the same time as the strike on Arad, Iran launched additional missiles toward northern Israel, triggering sirens from the Golan Heights to Haifa. Those missiles were either intercepted or fell in open areas, and no injuries were reported in the north.

Israeli officials condemned the attacks on civilian areas, describing them as deliberate strikes on population centers.

A preliminary investigation into the interception failures later found that the missiles were launched from two different locations and were liquid-fuel ballistic missiles that had been successfully intercepted in the past.

According to findings from the Air Force investigation, the interception policy was followed and multiple interceptors were launched in both cases.

The failures were attributed to technical malfunctions in the final interception phase, where the interceptor meets the incoming missile, a type of failure officials said occurs in only a small percentage of cases. The same defense systems reportedly carried out successful interceptions the following morning.

The back-to-back strikes in Dimona and Arad made Saturday night one of the most serious missile attacks on southern Israel since the start of the war.

Following the attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “a very difficult evening in the battle for our future,” after speaking with Arad Mayor Yair Ma’ayan and instructing government officials to provide full assistance to the city.

He praised emergency and rescue forces operating at the scene and urged the public to continue following Home Front Command instructions.

“We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts,” he said.