6 wounded by shrapnel, 1 seriously, as Iran fires suspected cluster warhead missile at Israel

Six people were injured, one of them seriously, at two impact sites in central Israel following an Iranian ballistic missile attack that apparently used a cluster warhead on Sunday afternoon, the sixth salvo of the day targeting Israel.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said a man in his 40s was seriously wounded in Tel Aviv.

In Petah Tikva, five others were hurt, including a man aged 25 in moderate condition and three in good condition.

More than a dozen impact sites were reported across central Israel, police officials said, adding that the spread of the impact sites indicated that the Iranian ballistic missile was likely carrying a cluster bomb warhead.

Iran has launched multiple ballistic missiles at Israel carrying cluster bomb warheads during the ongoing conflict, indiscriminately spreading small bombs in wide areas of the country.

The IDF said search and rescue soldiers were dispatched to the scenes, and it was investigating the circumstances of the impacts.

Photos and videos from the impact scenes showed widespread damage.

סולימאן מסוודה: זירת הפגיעה בתל אביב.
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There were no serious injuries reported in five earlier salvos targeting Israel throughout Sunday morning, beginning at 2 a.m. local time. The seventh and eighth attacks on Sunday afternoon also did not appear to cause any damage or injuries.

The previous Iranian attacks on Israel set off sirens in the center, north and south of the country, forcing millions to seek shelter. The IDF said a ballistic missile that targeted southern Israel was likely intercepted, according to initial military assessments.

And following a salvo targeting central Israel, some fragments from the interception were reported to fall in unpopulated areas.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain all also reported new attacks, more than a week after the US and Israel launched preemptive strikes against Tehran, and Iran’s president vowed to step up such activity.

Neighboring countries have borne much of Tehran’s response after the US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran, with 16 people, eight of them civilians, killed in the Gulf states since the war began, according to an AFP tally.

Iran’s president threatened Sunday to step up attacks on American targets throughout the Middle East amid the ongoing conflict.

“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in video comments Sunday. “Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it never has.”

Pezeshkian appeared to be backtracking from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbors on Saturday. Those comments, in which he appeared to apologize for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hardliners.

Pezeshkian said Iran was not looking for a battle against neighboring Arab countries, many of which host American military bases.

“They are our brothers,” he said, accusing the US of trying to pit the region’s countries against one another. Many Iranian attacks have gone beyond US bases in the region, striking energy facilities, hotels and cities.

In Kuwait, two border guards were killed while on duty, the interior ministry said Sunday. The military said fuel tanks at the country’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack.

Emirati authorities said Sunday that a Pakistani driver was killed overnight when debris from an aerial interception fell on a vehicle in Dubai. It’s the second death of a Pakistani national there in recent days.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths of the two Pakistanis in Dubai. Two other civilians, from Nepal and Bangladesh, have been killed by missile debris in Dubai since the war began.

The UAE said its air defenses detected 17 ballistic missiles on Sunday — destroying 16, while one fell into the sea — and intercepted 113 of 117 drones detected, with four falling inside the country.

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry reported intercepting 15 drones, including an attempted attack in the diplomatic quarter of the capital, Riyadh.

Bahrain said three people were wounded by falling missile debris over a university building in Muharraq city and that a water desalination plant was damaged.

Kuwait’s national oil company announces a “precautionary” cut to its crude production, as the country’s military says it responded to several drone and missile attacks.

Fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport were targeted in a drone attack, the military added.

The official Kuwait News Agency said a fire at the airport was brought under control, reporting no “significant injuries.”

The military called the drone attack “a direct targeting of vital infrastructure.”

Iranian IRNA News Agency

Widespread fire at Kuwait airport following this Sunday morning attacks by Iran.

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A separate statement said “some civilian facilities sustained material damage as a result of falling fragments and debris from interception operations.”

The Kuwaiti interior ministry said two border guards “were martyred… while performing their national duty,” without elaborating. It is not clear whether their deaths were the result of an Iranian attack.

The UAE’s defense ministry said air defenses were responding to “incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” while Bahrain’s interior ministry says air raid sirens were activated.

Qatar’s defense ministry said the country was targeted a day earlier by 10 ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles fired from Iran, but most of them were intercepted and caused no casualties.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.