From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Missile fragment hits house in unrecognized Bedouin village
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
A fragment from an intercepted Iranian ballistic missile hit a home this morning in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Tel Arad in the Negev, according to the Arab majority Hadash-Ta’al party, causing significant damage.
No injuries were reported. The family is one of the few in the village with a safe room, which is where they were when the fragment hit their home.
Jihad Amor, a resident of Tel Arad, tells The Times of Israel that the fragment hit his uncle’s home, about 20 meters from his own house.
He says he felt “total fear” when he heard the fragment hit at about 6 a.m.
Because Tel Arad is not recognized by the state, it has few public bomb shelters, and residents largely lack private safe rooms. The incident highlights the vulnerability of the roughly 130,000 residents of some 35 unrecognized villages.
Amor says residents feel abandoned by the state.
“For our neighbors in Arad, the Home Front Command arrives, and the police come. The prime minister was there. The whole world was there,” he says, referring to the recent direct missile impact in the nearby city of Arad, which saw some 90 people wounded.
“When we call the police or the Home Front Command, or the regional council, they don’t answer. No one pays attention. They don’t think of us as people, but as animals,” he charges.
In a statement following the strike, the Hadash party’s Negev branch says that the government’s neglect of these villages reflects “an explicitly racist policy” and “blatant discrimination against Arab citizens in the Negev.”
The Times of Israel Community.