Half-ton missile strikes Arad: 115 injured, 500 displaced, and 70 children hospitalized

The half-ton missile struck just before eleven o'clock in the evening in the middle of the row houses of a working-class neighborhood in Arad, a town overlooking the Dead Sea, inhabited by ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi, Bedouin Arabs, and Russian immigrants. The gigantic explosion ripped through twenty apartment buildings, injuring 115 people, of whom 10 are in serious condition. Seventy children are hospitalized. Five hundred civilians have been displaced. Two hours earlier, other ballistic missiles launched from Iran - which the Israeli defense systems failed to intercept, as stated by the IDF - had also hit a residential neighborhood in Dimona, a town 16 kilometers from the Negev Nuclear Research Center, where a multi-story building collapsed, 60 injured.

The high number of civilians involved in these explosions, as many recount, is due to the fact that, until now, the area had been one of the least attacked by Tehran. "Here we felt safe, I have a shelter in my house, but I never go in when the sirens sound. Now I have learned my lesson," explains to ANSA Adam Abu Rabìa, a driving instructor who lives next to the explosion site, originally from the Bedouin village of Drijat, adjacent to Arad. His house suffered minor damage, but he has several relatives among the displaced. "The war is terrible and we hope it ends soon. I can't even imagine what could happen if Iran had nuclear weapons. Write this - says Adam - we support the Israeli army."

Despite the presence of the so-called 'textile factory' - the code name used by Israelis to refer to the nuclear plant that the country has never officially acknowledged - and numerous bases of the IDF - such as the one in Nevatim, about fifteen kilometers from Arad, from where many of the jets that attack Iran presumably take off - the area had not been bombarded by attacks from the Islamic Republic since February 28. Instead, it has focused on hitting the center of the country - especially Tel Aviv and Jerusalem - where more than half of the Israeli population lives. However, the strategic sites in the Negev have not been reached by the massive bombs from the Pasdaran. "Iran intentionally targets populated areas, we see it here," says police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne, speaking near the crater left by the Iranian device in Arad. "But it is also demonstrated by the intensive use of cluster bombs." So far, half of the missiles launched by Iran belong to this category, releasing about 24 sub-munitions per missile, each containing between 3 and 5 kilograms of explosives.

On Sunday in Arad, a crowd gathered around the buildings devastated by Iranian explosives. Displaced people were trying to recover some belongings from the burned houses or from the furniture that had been blown out of the windows by the explosion. But there were also journalists from around the world, and residents of the various ethnicities and religions that populate the town, 32,000 inhabitants, where many workers from the mining and tourism industries of the Dead Sea live, Arabs from the nearby Bedouin villages, and an increasingly predominant ultra-Orthodox population from the Gur Hassidim sect. Throughout the morning, among others, Netanyahu and the Defense Minister arrived in Arad. "We witnessed a miracle here, there hasn't been a single death, but we do not rely on miracles, it is important to go to the shelters," said the Prime Minister. However, there was one victim at the kibbutz Misgav Am, on the northern border, hit by a missile from Hezbollah. "Iran attacks civilians to push them to protest against the government to end the war. This will not happen. The front of the Israeli population is strong," declared Israel Katz. This opinion is widely shared by the civilians of the town on the border with the Negev desert, who believe this war against Iran is essential.