The Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona was bombed.
Image: Keystone
Dimona is one of the most sensitive regions in Israel. Because there is a nuclear facility there, it was bombed at the weekend.
March 23, 2026, 2:21 p.mMarch 23, 2026, 2:21 p.m
Anouk RIONDET/ afp
«Dimona is probably the safest place in Israel. We thought we would be safe here,” says one resident. Located in the Negev Desert, with its discreet but strategically high-level nuclear research center, it is one of Israel’s most sensitive regions.
After an Iranian missile hits the city of Dimona (in the south), residents react with surprise and resignation to the event and hesitate to talk about the existence of this top-secret facility.
translation
This text was written by our colleagues from French-speaking Switzerland and we translated it for you.
“We didn’t expect that,” says Galit Amir, 50, who runs a home in the immediate vicinity of the impact site.
Six residents were in the building at the time of the attack and suffered minor injuries. They were “safe the whole time” in Dimona, says the woman who looks after people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities.
A rocket hit
On Saturday evening, an Iranian missile hit a residential area of Dimona, injuring around 30 people, one of them seriously. Israeli air defenses were unable to destroy the warhead.
The city borders the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center. Negev Nuclear Research Center)a nuclear research facility that, according to foreign press, has been involved in the production of nuclear weapons in recent decades.
Little information is made public about the nuclear facility in Dimona. Israel is considered the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, but pursues a policy of “strategic ambiguity” by neither confirming nor denying its possession of nuclear bombs.
The situation has changed
The city had already been the target of attacks in previous wars, but Saturday’s attack represents a significant escalation. It has once again put the desert city with its almost 40,000 inhabitants at the center of global attention.
Suspicious of the journalists, some residents avoid the conversation. A young woman is in front of her house, the door of which is upside down. When asked about her feeling of safety near a potential target, she blurts out:
“They only targeted a textile company.”
In Dimona, “there is no nuclear research facility,” David Azran tries to convince the AFP news agency. The 54-year-old landscape gardener is near a crater and his destroyed house, just ten meters from the point of impact.
The explosion was violent.Image: Keystone
“I don’t feel threatened, I’m confident,” says Azran with a rifle over his shoulder. He adds, as a kind of admission: “You (the Iranians, editor’s note) “They will not be able to reach this research facility, they have already tried so many times.”
A brutal shock
There is a frightening picture of destruction at the impact site. Debris covers the ground as far as the eye can see: concrete blocks, collapsed parts of walls, broken glass and pieces of metal lying scattered in utter chaos.
The surrounding houses were swept away, sometimes only a few load-bearing walls remained, like open carcasses.
In the midst of this desolation, fragments of normal life can be seen among the rubble: a large exercise ball, a board game, a bag of dog food, Lego bricks scattered in the dust…
The area hit is in a residential area of Dimona, almost five kilometers from the nuclear research center, which is hidden in the mountains southeast of the city.
Iran claimed responsibility for the missile launch and said it was a “response” to the “hostile” attack on the Natanz facility (central Iran), which Tehran had reported earlier on Saturday.
A country in the throes of war
Since February 28, the Middle East has been at war, triggered by joint attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran, to which Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks against Israel and several countries in the region.
Krishna Vishwakarma, 34, an Indian carpenter, wants to convince:
«We are very safe here. We don’t have any problems. We are not afraid of attacks from Iran.”
Einav Alon, 37, owner of a supermarket damaged by the impact, describes the scene: “When we got out of the shelter (in his house, editor’s note) everything was destroyed.”
The mother of two boys, aged eight and six, said she was “quite surprised” but added that it was reassuring for her to live in “a great country with a great army” protecting the population.
In their view, the Iranian attack was inevitable. “We are not afraid (…) accidents happen.”