About 47 people were injured in Israel's Dimona also known as "Little India" after an Iranian missile struck it on Saturday evening.
Footage shows the moment an Iranian ballistic missile struck the southern city of Dimona this evening. pic.twitter.com/fCYwtgAj5x
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 21, 2026
Videos circulating online show the moment a ballistic missile struck near the town’s residential areas.
The missile carrying a heavy warhead struck a community building, damaging nearby homes.
Dimona is called Little India due to its high Indian population. There are about 7,500 members of the Jewish Indian community in the area, making up about 30 per cent of the towns population. The locals speak in Marathi and Hindi.
The residents immigrated to the town in the 1950s and 1960s. The majority of the population is made up of Bene Israeli’s from Maharashtra; there are also a relatively smaller number of Cochin Jews from Kerala and Baghdadi Jews. Some Indian Jews from Mizoram and Manipur (Bnei Menache) have been immigrating to Israel.
The residents are employed as diamond traders, IT professionals, and caregivers for the elderly.
Indian-origin population also resides in cities like Haifa, Tel Aviv, Arad, Netanya and Afula.
The city is just 2 kilometres away from one of Israel's key nuclear sites.
Israel’s military said that it was not able to intercept missiles that hit Dimona and Arad. In Arad, a total of 84 people were injured.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that it targeted Dimona due to the Natanz nuclear enrichment site. "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," he said on X.
The strike marks the first time Iran was successful in bypassing Israel’s air defence near the nuclear site.
Both Dimona and Arad are two towns in Israel that lie close to Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Centre,which is believed to house Israel’s undeclared arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The towns also house the country’s military, technology and critical infrastructure, with Dimona being the defence centre and Arad serving as a residential and logistical hub.
