9 injured as Iran fires 7 missile salvos at Israel within hours, many with cluster warheads

Iran pummeled Israel with seven salvos of missiles within hours on Thursday morning, injuring nine people in Israel and the West Bank and causing damage as cluster warheads spread submunitions across wide areas.

Tehran also continued to attack its Gulf neighbors with missiles and drones. Two people were killed in Abu Dhabi by debris from an intercepted missile, the emirate’s media office said, adding that three others were injured and several vehicles were damaged.

Seven salvos of ballistic missiles were fired at Israel within a matter of hours on Thursday morning, after an overnight lull of some 14 hours.

The volleys sent millions running for shelter repeatedly in central and northern Israel, which also faced concurrent attacks from Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group.

The first missile was intercepted, with no reports of injuries or damage.

In the second attack of the morning, five people were lightly wounded in a cluster bomb impact in the central city of Kafr Qasim, medics said.

Several submunitions from the Iranian ballistic missile struck the city, causing damage.

Footage showed the moment one of them hit a residential area, causing damage to homes and sending vehicles tumbling through the air.

Additionally, two homes in two separate West Bank settlements were damaged, one of them by an apparent cluster munition impact.

“In both cases, the families were in the bomb safe room,” the Samaria Regional Council said in a statement.

One person was lightly injured.

In the third salvo, at least one missile was intercepted by air defenses, according to the IDF, and there were reports of fragments hitting the Modiin area. Attempts were made to intercept another missile, though the results were still under investigation by the military.

In the fourth attack, one person was lightly to moderately wounded by shrapnel in northern Israel, apparently after a submunition from a cluster bomb warhead hit the area.

A small number of missiles — including one that carried a cluster bomb warhead — were launched in that attack, which triggered sirens across central and northern Israel.

One bomblet caused damage to a shopping center near Haifa, according to police and rescue services, and a missile fired at central Israel was intercepted by air defenses, according to initial military assessments.

In the fifth attack, a ballistic missile fired at central Israel was intercepted without causing injuries.

In the sixth, two people were wounded in Tel Aviv —  a woman in her 40s was hit by shrapnel, and a 26-year-old man was hit by the blast when a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead spread bomblets over a wide area, causing damage.

In the seventh, a small number of missiles were launched, triggering sirens across central Israel and some parts of Jerusalem. The IDF said some of the missiles were successfully intercepted by air defenses. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

More than 400 ballistic missiles have been launched from Iran at Israel since the start of the war, with the military reporting an interception rate of 92 percent of attacks heading for populated areas and key infrastructure.

In all, at least eight missiles carrying conventional warheads with hundreds of kilograms of explosives have struck populated areas in Israel, causing extensive damage in six cases. There have also been more than 30 incidents of missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads hitting populated areas, with over 150 separate impact sites.

Meanwhile, the military said the Israeli Air Force carried out an “extensive” wave of strikes targeting Iranian regime infrastructure sites.

In recent days, Israeli strikes have largely focused on Iran’s military production industries.

The Israeli Air Force has conducted hundreds of waves of strikes in Iran, dropping over 13,000 bombs on Iranian regime and military sites, including air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, nuclear facilities, and various headquarters.

The IDF has estimated that some 5,000 Iranian soldiers have been killed in Israeli strikes, along with tens of thousands more wounded, many of them members of the internal security forces and Basij paramilitary force.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the Central Command chief leading US forces in the Middle East, said Wednesday that the US had hit over 10,000 targets inside Iran and was on track to limit Iran’s ability to project power outside its borders.

Cooper said in a video briefing that 92% of Iran’s largest naval vessels had been destroyed and that its drone and missile launch rates were down by more than 90%.

The US and Israel have damaged or destroyed two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards, Cooper said.

The Pentagon is meanwhile planning to send thousands of airborne troops to the Gulf to give Trump more options to order a ground assault, sources have said, adding to two contingents of Marines already on their way. The first Marine unit, aboard a huge amphibious assault ship, could arrive around the end of the month.

Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, distance threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and other Israeli leaders have said.

Since the war began on February 28, 15 Israeli civilians and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel in Iranian ballistic missile attacks, along with four Palestinians in the West Bank.

Three IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon amid fighting against Hezbollah, which began to attack Israel the day after the war began. An Israeli woman was killed by a Hezbollah rocket, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.

US President Donald Trump has said talks are underway to end the fighting, with a 15-point peace plan reportedly sent to Tehran.

However, with the official status of talks uncertain, but diplomats indicating mediation was ongoing behind the scenes, the daily salvos of strikes across the region has continued unabated.