Israel endured one of its hardest nights of the war as Iranian ballistic missiles slammed into Dimona and Arad, wounding more than 100 people, including 11 listed in serious condition. Among the badly hurt were a 12-year-old boy in Dimona and a 5-year-old girl in Arad. In both cases, Israeli air defenses engaged the incoming missiles but failed to bring them down, allowing two direct hits in residential areas and turning a night of alerts into scenes of fire, shattered buildings, and mass-casualty rescues.

The damage was especially severe in the south. In Dimona, medics described chaos at the scene after a missile carrying a large conventional warhead crashed into the city, setting at least one residential building ablaze and injuring people with shrapnel and flying glass. Hours later, Arad was hit by another ballistic missile that struck between apartment buildings, injuring 71 physically and forcing rescuers to comb through rubble to make sure no one had been left behind. The health system moved into full emergency mode, with some casualties transferred north and evacuated families sent to hotels in the Dead Sea area.

Iranian state media claimed the barrage was aimed at the nuclear research area near Dimona and framed it as retaliation for an alleged strike on Natanz earlier in the day. Israel denied involvement in that reported attack. What is verified is that Tehran kept up pressure on the Israeli home front throughout the evening, including another missile attack that triggered sirens in Eilat before the projectile was apparently intercepted. The message from Iran was not subtle: even after weeks of fighting and repeated Israeli strikes on regime infrastructure, it is still trying to land psychologically powerful blows inside Israel.

Israel’s response was immediate in tone, even as the investigation into the interception failures began. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “very difficult evening” and said Israel would keep striking its enemies on all fronts. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir approved additional strikes overnight and later said the campaign against Iran is at about the halfway point, signaling that Jerusalem sees this not as a one-off spike but as part of a longer and harsher phase of the war. Defense Minister Israel Katz also said the intensity of Israeli and U.S. strikes is expected to increase in the coming days.

The Home Front Command tightened restrictions in parts of the south, canceled educational activity there, and Israel then moved all schools nationwide back to remote learning for Sunday and Monday. After weeks of airstrikes, decapitation strikes, and missile interceptions, this was a reminder that the war is still live, still volatile, and still capable of delivering sudden, painful shocks deep inside Israel.