2 Iranian strikes on towns near Israel’s main nuclear research center injure dozens

Iranian strikes hit two communities near Israel’s main nuclear research center, injuring at least 90 people in the country’s south. This is the first time that the Israeli nuclear research center has been targeted. in the war It started three weeks ago.

The strikes came hours after Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit by an airstrike, for which the Israeli military denied responsibility.

The Israeli military said it was unable to intercept Iranian missiles that struck the towns of Dimona and Arad, the largest towns near the center of Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert.

Israel’s emergency relief agency Magen David Adom said early Sunday morning that at least 59 people were injured in the attack on Arad. A Magen David Adom spokesperson said six people were hospitalized in serious condition, 13 in moderate condition and 40 in mild condition.

Magen David Adom teams continue to search the debris for other victims, the agency said.

In another Iranian strike hours earlier on the nearby town of Dimona, at least 33 people were injured, Magen David Adom previously reported.

Following these two strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that the Israeli military would continue its war efforts in the Middle East.

“This is a very difficult evening in the campaign for our future,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted on social media, adding that he had spoken to the mayor of Arad, one of the two affected towns, and conveyed “our prayers for the peace of the injured.”

“We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts,” Netanyahu wrote.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that the Iranian regime is resorting to reckless attacks that only further reveal its instability and disregard for human life, while strategically targeting civilians,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shosh, an Israeli army spokesperson, said on social media.

Footage from Israeli emergency services shows a large crater next to what appear to be apartment buildings whose exterior walls have been destroyed. The missile appears to have hit an open area.

Rescuers said the direct strike in Arad caused widespread damage to at least 10 apartment buildings, with three severely damaged and at risk of collapse.

Israel is considered the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, although its leaders refuse to confirm or deny their existence. THE International Atomic Energy Agencythe United Nations nuclear watchdog, told the X that it had not received any reports of damage to the Israeli center or abnormal radiation levels.

Israel on Saturday denied any responsibility for the strike against Iran’s Natanz nuclear power plant, located about 210 km southeast of Tehran. Iran’s official judiciary news agency, Mizan, said there had been no leak. The IAEA told the X that it was investigating the strike, but that “no increase in off-site radiation levels” had been reported.

The nuclear facility had already been hit by Israeli airstrikes during the Iran-Israel 12-Day War in June 2025, and later that month by the United States.

The IAEA said most of Iran’s 970 pounds of enriched uranium was elsewhere, under the rubble of its Isfahan facility, which was also bombed by the United States last June.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike on Natanz, which was also hit in the first week of the war and during the 12 Day War last June.

“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, this is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X before news of the Arad strike spread.

On Friday, several people were informed of the discussions told CBS News that the Trump administration has developed strategies and options to secure or extract Iranian nuclear materials. The timing of such an operation, if ordered by President Trump, remained unclear. A source said he had not yet made a decision.