Photo- Screenshots from online videos that are said to show the missile attack on Dimona, Israel.
Two children are in serious condition after air defenses failed to intercept missile fire apparently aimed at nuclear research facility near Dimona; Iran claims salvo was retaliation for US strike on Natanz
Over 100 people were injured by Iranian strikes in the southern cities of Dimona and Arad on Saturday, 11 of them seriously, medics said, after Israeli air defenses failed to intercept at least two ballistic missiles.
Following the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir pledged to continue fighting Israel’s enemies on “all fronts,” amid the US-Israeli war with Iran that began on February 28.
Among those seriously injured in the strikes on the south were a 12-year-old boy suffering from shrapnel injuries as a result of the strike in Dimona, and a 5-year-old girl hurt in the subsequent strike in Arad. The missile fire came amid repeated Iranian attacks on the Dimona area on Saturday.
Iranian state media said the strikes were targeting Israel’s nuclear research facility, located some 10 kilometers (six miles) outside of Dimona and 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) outside of Arad, in retaliation for an alleged US attack on Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility earlier in the day. Iran blamed that attack on the US and Israel, though the IDF denied any involvement.
The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center is believed to be key to Israel’s long-suspected nuclear weapons program, the existence of which Jerusalem neither confirms nor denies as a matter of policy.
Iran had also targeted the city of Dimona prior to the alleged attack on Natanz.
An Israeli soldier uses a torch to inspect the damage after Iranian missile barrages struck Dimona, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in southern Israel March 21, 2026. © Ilan Assayag, Reuters
IAEA Responds to Nuclear Facility
Footage posted to social media from multiple angles showed the ballistic missile hurtling out of the sky at high speed before crashing into the city. The missile carried a conventional Iranian warhead, with hundreds of kilograms of explosives, according to military assessments.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said it had received no indication Israel’s nuclear facility near Dimona was damaged in Iranian strikes on Saturday.
The IAEA has been informed of both attacks, the organization said on its X page. Regarding the earlier strike on Natanz, the IAEA said, there is no reported “increase in off-site radiation levels,” at this time. Following the U.S. strike on Natanz in June, the Trump administration said Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “obliterated.”
In a later post on Saturday, the IAEA said its aware of the Dimona strike, noting it “has not received any indication of damage to the nuclear research center Negev.”
Times of Israel/ Newsweek
