WASHINGTON (AP) —Iranian missiles struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured and in an attack not far from Israel’s main nuclear research center, as the war spun into a dangerous new direction.
The Iranian strikes came after Tehran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz was hit earlier in the day.
Israel’s military said it was not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, the largest near the center in Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more emergency crews were being sent to the scene.
“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X before word of the Arad strike spread.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 U.S. military members, and a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
President Trump threatens Iranian power plants over opening of the Strait of Hormuz
Trump said he’s giving Iran exactly 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks.
He said the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
He issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend in Florida.
Trump faces increasing pressure to secure the strait as oil prices soar.
