Updated on: March 22, 2026 / 9:22 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Iranian strikes hit two communities near Israel’s main nuclear research center, injuring more than 100 people in the southern part of the country. It was the first time Israel’s nuclear research center area has been targeted in the war that began three weeks ago.
The strikes came hours after Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility was hit in an airstrike, an attack for which Israel’s military denied responsibility.
Israel’s military said it was not able to intercept the Iranian missiles that hit the cities of Dimona and Arad in the Negev desert. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no one was killed in either city “due to luck.”
“If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world, the last 48 hours have given it,” Netanyahu told reporters at the site of the Arad strike. “In the last 48 hours, Iran targeted a civilian area. They’re doing that as a mass murder weapon. Luckily, no one was killed, but that’s due to luck, not their intention. Their intention is to murder civilians.”
Netanyahu called on world leaders to join Israel and the United States in their war against Iran, saying some leaders were beginning to move in that direction but “more is needed.” He said Israel and the U.S. are responding to Iran “with great force, but not on civilians.”
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency rescue agency said at least 64 people were injured in the Arad strike: seven hospitalized in serious condition, 15 in moderate condition and 42 in mild condition. Teams continued to search debris for more casualties. In a separate strike on Dimona, Magen David Adom reported at least 40 people injured.
Following the strikes, Netanyahu vowed Israel’s military would continue operations. “This is a very difficult evening in the campaign for our future,” he said in a social media post, adding he had spoken to Arad’s mayor and conveyed “our prayers for the peace of the injured.” “We are determined to continue to strike our enemies on all fronts,” he wrote.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shosh, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, said on social media that the Iranian regime is resorting to “reckless attacks” that target civilians and expose its instability and disregard for human life.
Footage from Israeli emergency services showed a large crater near apartment buildings with outer walls sheared away. Rescue teams said the direct hit in Arad caused widespread damage across at least 10 apartment buildings, three badly damaged and at risk of collapse. The missile appeared to have struck an open area adjacent to residential blocks.
Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though its leaders neither confirm nor deny that. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli research center or of abnormal radiation levels.
Israel on Saturday denied responsibility for the Natanz strike, located about 135 miles southeast of Tehran. Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan said there was no leakage, and the IAEA said it was looking into the strike but reported “no increase in off-site radiation levels.” Natanz had been struck previously during the June 2025 Iran-Israel 12-day war and was later hit that month by the U.S. The IAEA has said much of Iran’s estimated 970 pounds of enriched uranium is elsewhere, under rubble at Isfahan, which was bombed by the U.S. last June.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the Natanz strike. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on social media that Israel’s inability to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area could indicate a new phase of the battle.
Separately, multiple people briefed on discussions told CBS News that the Trump administration has been strategizing options to secure or extract Iran’s nuclear materials. The timing of any such operation, if ordered by President Trump, remained unclear and no decision had been made.