An Iranian missile exploded between residential buildings in Arad on Saturday night, causing extensive damage and wounding at least 84 people, including 10 seriously. Among the wounded was a young girl listed in serious condition, while two victims were initially found unconscious.
Large rescue and emergency forces, including Magen David Adom teams, Home Front Command personnel, and 17 firefighting crews, were dispatched to the scene. They began evacuating casualties from buildings near the impact site and searching for people who may still have been trapped inside.
“We heard the first alert and went into the shelter,” N., a resident of the city, said. “After that, we heard an explosion that we thought was close, but it was actually several neighborhoods away. We could hear it all the way here.”
Another resident said, “We were in the shelter and heard the explosion. I opened the door and saw destruction inside the house. The washing machine was destroyed, and many things in the house had fallen and broken.”
MDA teams began triaging and treating the wounded at the scene as rescue forces searched damaged buildings and vehicles.
“This is a very difficult scene,” said Yakir Talker, a MDA emergency medical technician. “We arrived with large forces of ambulances, intensive care units, and medical personnel on motorcycles. We saw many casualties with varying degrees of injury as a result of the missile strike. We concentrated the wounded at a casualty collection point, sorted them by severity, and gave them initial treatment, including life-saving care. There is major destruction here to buildings and many vehicles, and rescue teams are searching inside the damaged structures to locate casualties.”
Residents who were in protected spaces at the time of the strike described an unusually powerful blast.
“We heard a very serious boom, unlike anything since the start of the war,” said Maksim Okunin, an Arad resident. “The whole house shook. Our entire family was in the safe room. We understood this was more than a normal explosion. Very quickly, we realized there had been an impact in the city. I understood there was extensive destruction and many missing people.”
A relative of Okunin serves in Home Front Command, and after the all-clear was issued, he immediately went out to help with rescue efforts.
“This is a neighborhood of fairly old buildings. Most of them do not have safe rooms. There are mainly public shelters there,” he said. “Home Front Command is now searching the buildings to find people who may still be trapped under the rubble.”
An extraordinary scale of destruction
Danny Rotenberg, a MDA medic who arrived from the Dead Sea area, said the scale of destruction was extraordinary.
“There are railroad-style apartment buildings on both sides. The missile caused extremely heavy destruction,” he said. “At this stage, we completed the evacuation of the casualties we were able to reach. Firefighters and Home Front Command forces are still trying to locate injured people or those trapped. There were very large forces operating inside the scene.”
Udi, a resident of one of the damaged buildings, said the blast shattered his home.
“There was a siren, and we quickly went to the neighborhood shelter. While we were inside, we heard a very loud boom,” he said. “Our entire building was damaged. All the windows came down.”
He said the family’s apartment was very close to the impact site.
“Our home is in the middle of the neighborhood. We do not have a safe room in the apartment. When we hear the alert, we go straight to the shelter through the stairwell. But many elderly people live in the building, and they could not get to the shelter quickly. I really hope that despite the severe damage, we will not see many casualties here.”
Another MDA medic, Saar Shachori, said signs of the blast were still visible when his team arrived.
“We saw extensive destruction in several different buildings,” he said. “Thick black smoke was rising from several places, and there was a great deal of chaos in the area. We set up a casualty collection point and called out on a megaphone for the wounded to come there for initial treatment.”
According to Shachori, some of the most seriously injured victims were children.
“Through the rubble, I saw four casualties: a young girl in serious condition, one person in moderate condition, and two children who were lightly wounded,” he said. “They were very frightened and called to me for help. I helped them get out of the rubble, and after they received initial treatment, we evacuated them to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.”
Southern District Police Commander Assistant-Chief Haim Bublil arrived at the Arad scene after visiting the site of the missile impact in Dimona.
“There is significant damage to at least three buildings,” he said. “Some of them are in danger of collapse. There is another nearby scene where interceptor fragments fell. We evacuated injured children from here in serious condition. The missile hit the center of a building complex. It is really a miracle that it did not directly hit a residential building. Hundreds of people live here, and most of the damage was caused by the force of the blast.”
According to emergency officials, 66 casualties were evacuated from the scene to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba by MDA ambulances and Israel Air Force helicopters. Six were in serious condition, 13 were moderately wounded, 40 were lightly wounded, and the rest were treated for shock. Officials noted that additional cases of shock could continue to emerge long after the incident itself.
Home Front Command chief Maj.-Gen. Shay Klepper, who also arrived at the scene, said the security forces were working both to rescue survivors and to draw lessons from the attack.
“We are facing a very challenging evening, with two difficult scenes,” he said. “The enemy is firing directly at population centers. Home Front Command and the Air Force arrived here quickly to deal with the scene. Command personnel are going house to house and room to room in order to rescue trapped people. They are working carefully to do the best possible job. We are in a very difficult campaign, and we are acting so that these things will not happen again in the future. I want to stress once again the need to obey Home Front Command instructions. We see that they save lives.”
When asked whether some residents had failed to enter protected spaces, Klepper said the command was doing everything possible to protect civilians.
“We are doing everything to protect the residents,” he said. “We are at a difficult scene, and we are investigating ourselves and checking how to ensure things like this do not happen again. We are doing our utmost together with all the rescue authorities in the district.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also referred overnight to both the Arad and Dimona incidents. He said he had spoken with Dimona Mayor Benny Bitton and Arad Mayor Yair Maayan.
“This is a very difficult evening in the campaign for our future,” Netanyahu said. “In my conversations with the mayors, I asked them to convey, on behalf of all the citizens of Israel, our prayers for the wounded. I instructed the director-general of my office to provide all the required assistance, together with all government ministries. I strengthen the emergency and rescue forces now operating on the ground, and I call on everyone to obey Home Front Command instructions. We are determined to continue striking our enemies on all fronts.”
