Iranian missiles injure 160 in towns near Israeli nuclear site

More than 160 people have been injured - some seriously - in Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns close to a nuclear facility, Israeli emergency officials say.

They say 84 people are being treated in Arad and another 78 in Dimona, after ballistic missiles hit the towns on Saturday evening.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it is not aware of any damage to the nuclear research facility located about 13km (eight miles) outside Dimona.

Iranian state TV earlier said the strikes were in response to an attack on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Saturday. The IAEA says "no increase in off-site radiation levels" has been reported there.

Iranian ballistic missiles got through Israel's sophisticated air defences late on Saturday, hitting buildings in the two southern Israeli towns.

In Arad, local residents said the blasts they heard were terrifying. The missile badly damaged several buildings, leaving a deep crater.

"This is a very severe scene," emergency medical technician Yakir Talkar said in a statement describing Arad, adding there were "many wounded with varying degrees of injury".

The nearby town of Dimona experienced a similar missile strike.

Among the many injured there is a 10-year-old boy. Medics describe his condition as serious.

Israeli authorities are now investigating how the Iranian missiles made it through air defence systems.

"In both Dimona and Arad, interceptors were launched that failed to hit the threats, resulting in two direct hits by ballistic missiles with warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms," Israeli firefighters said.

The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center - located in the Negev desert - is often referred to colloquially as the "Dimona reactor". It is long accepted as holding Israel's undeclared arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Officially, the site is said to focus solely on research but for about six decades, it has been an open secret that Israel developed a nuclear bomb there, even if each succeeding government has maintained a position of ambiguity over this.

It has meant that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. So any indication that it is being targeted is taken with the utmost gravity by Israel.

Both Israel and the US have set the elimination of any possible Iranian capacity to develop a nuclear bomb as the key aim of the war.

Iran's own Atomic Energy Organisation described the attack on Natanz as a violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, though it said "no leakage of radioactive materials" was reported and there was "no danger to residents of the surrounding areas".

Natanz was also targeted in the first days of the war, which started on 28 February, by US-Israeli strikes, as well as during the 12-day war in June.

Asked about Natanz on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Israeli and international media that they were not aware of a strike in the area.