Saturday night saw Israel experience its largest casualty event since the start of the war with Iran three weeks ago, when two ballistic missiles struck residential neighborhoods in the southern cities of Arad and Dimona, injuring nearly 200 people — most of whom were not in bomb shelters at the time of impact.

Although Iran claimed to have targeted the nearby Dimona nuclear facility, it was local civilians who bore the brunt of the attack.

In Arad, 88 people were treated by Magen David Adom first responders, 10 of them seriously, including a 5-year-old girl. Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center said it treated a total of 115 people from the city.

Jeremy Lew, a local resident, told The Times of Israel that he rushed his family to safety when the sirens sounded.

Lew recalled waking his two children and taking them with his mother to the building’s bomb shelter.

“We heard a really loud boom,” he said.

The strike marked the first direct hit in Arad, but Lew noted that the city had been under frequent missile alerts since the war began on February 28.

His mother, Maayan Taylor, described the toll on families living under constant threat of ballistic missile attacks: “Our kids haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in a while.”

Lew added that his ex-wife’s home in Beersheba had been damaged in a previous attack, prompting him to believe Arad would be safer for his children — an assumption that was now shaken.

“It definitely doesn’t feel as safe,” he said.

According to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Roni Kaplan, the strike underscored the ongoing threat posed by Iran.

“We see here the manifestation of the Iranian threat,” Kaplan told........

© The Times of Israel