Iranian strike in southern town near nuclear facility rocks residents’ sense of security

DIMONA, Southern Israel (AFP) — Galit Amir said she thought the presence of a key Israeli nuclear facility near her hometown of Dimona meant it would be well-protected by air defenses during the war with Iran.

But that sense of security was torn apart Saturday evening when a direct strike by an Iranian ballistic missile ripped open residential buildings and left dozens wounded.

“We thought we were safe,” Amir, a 50-year-old care provider, told AFP.

A day after the devastating blow in the southern town of 40,000 nestled in the Negev desert, residents spoke of shock mixed with resignation, but were largely reluctant to discuss the presence of the ultra-secret nuclear facility nearby.

“Dimona is the most safe place in Israel,” said Amir, who runs a care home not far from the nuclear site. “We didn’t expect this.”

Six people were inside her nursing home at the time of the strike and suffered minor injuries, she said.

Israel’s much-vaunted air defenses failed to intercept the projectile, which Iran said was launched in response to a strike on its nuclear facility at Natanz — reportedly by American forces.

The nearby town of Arad also suffered a direct hit just hours later. The strikes on Arad and Dimona cumulatively wounded almost 200 people, 11 of them seriously.

The missiles that hit the two towns carried conventional warheads — not cluster warheads — with hundreds of kilograms of explosives. Air defenses had engaged both projectiles, but the interceptors failed to knock them down.

The Israeli Air Force said Sunday that the failure to intercept the missiles in both cases was not a “systemic” problem, that the circumstances in each case were unrelated, and that the fact the incidents took place in the same area within two hours was a coincidence.

‘They hit a textile factory, that’s all’

Dimona lies some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, a facility officially dedicated to research but widely believed by analysts to house Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Little information has emerged about the Dimona site. Israel maintains a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” neither confirming nor denying possession of nuclear weapons.

Saturday’s strike, which hit a residential neighborhood in the town, marked a significant and dangerous escalation, and has thrust the desert town into the global spotlight.

Wary of journalists, some residents avoided talking about the sensitive issue.

Asked about safety near a potentially targeted nuclear site, a young woman standing outside her home, its front door blown inward, said: “They hit a textile factory, that’s all.”

“There is no nuclear research facility,” insisted David Azran, 54, a contractor standing near a crater and the remains of his home just meters from the impact point.

“I don’t feel threatened. I have faith,” said Azran, a rifle slung over his shoulder.

Iranian state media said the strikes on southern Israel targeted the nuclear research facility, in retaliation for an alleged US attack on Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility earlier Saturday. Iran blamed that attack on the US and Israel, though the IDF denied any involvement. Iran had also targeted the city of Dimona prior to the alleged attack on Natanz.

The Natanz facility, which hosts underground centrifuges to enrich uranium for Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons program, was already damaged in last year’s June war. Much of Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade 60% is believed to be kept underground in the area.

‘No cause for concern’

At the impact site in Dimona, the scale of destruction was jarring.

Debris stretched as far as the eye could see: chunks of concrete, collapsed walls, shattered glass and twisted metal scattered everywhere.

Nearby houses were blown apart, sometimes leaving only a few load-bearing walls standing like hollow shells.

Some signs of everyday life were visible too: a large exercise ball and a bag of dog food scattered in the dust.

Since February 28, the Middle East has been engulfed in war triggered by joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran, to which Tehran has responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and several countries in the region.

“We feel completely safe here. There is no cause for concern,” said Krishna Vishwakarma, a 34-year-old carpenter from India.

Einav Alon, 37, whose supermarket was damaged in the strike, described the scene: “When we left the bomb shelter room, everything was destroyed.”

The mother of two boys, aged eight and six, said she was “quite surprised.”

Still, she added: “We don’t feel scared.”

Emanuel Fabian and ToI staff contributed to this report.