Jalebis, cricket and missiles: Inside Dimona, Israel’s ‘Little India’ under attack from Iran

Early on Sunday morning, residents of Israel’s Dimona aroused from sleep to eye the streets plagued by shards of glass and charred particles after missiles from Iran struck the neighbourhood in southern Israel. The health ministry famed that 180 other folks had been injured within the missile strikes on Dimona, which would per chance also be home to the country’s predominant nuclear facility, as properly as nearby Arad.

Iran, responding to the strikes, talked about it modified into once retaliation for a joint US-Israeli strike on its Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Alternatively, the Jewish nation has denied it modified into once within the encourage of the strikes.

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Incidentally, Dimona, which modified into once struck by Iran, is mostly is called ‘Exiguous India’. Here’s why.

Iran strikes Dimona

On Saturday night, Iran launched missiles toward
Dimona, calling it a “response” to an attack on Iran’s
Natanz nuclear enrichment complex earlier within the day, marking a stark new section of tit-for-tat concentrated on within the battle, now in its fourth week.

Dimona and Arad are the closest cities to Israel’s predominant nuclear study set up and reactor, indubitably one of basically the most guarded sites in Israel. Neither had been straight away hit sooner than, including in bigger than two years of wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, per local officers.

Yitzhak Salem and his better half inform the 2nd they heard the blast — they had been hiding interior a safe room of their home when the blast occurred, filling the home with grime and smoke. “It felt admire a storm blended with an earthquake,” he modified into once quoted as telling the Unique York Times.

Alternatively, no longer all people modified into once as lucky. Iran’s missile strike killed a minimum of 180 other folks, including 116 in Arad. Neatly being officers famed that moderately just a few the injured had sustained shrapnel wounds after just a few residential buildings had been destroyed.

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “spirited night” for the home, but added that the country would continue its attack towards Iran, which started on February 28.

An Israeli protection power spokesman talked about
air defence programs had been activated within the future of the assaults, but didn’t intercept among the missiles, although they had been no longer “special or irregular”. “In both Dimona and Arad, interceptors had been launched that didn’t hit the threats, ensuing in two declare hits by ballistic missiles with warheads weighing a total bunch of kilogrammes,” firefighters talked about.

Tomer Sagev, a medic, modified into once quoted as telling Deutsche Welle, “No one knew straightforward strategies to handle the peril. When we reached the set apart, we purchased other folks out of their properties — the elderly, kids, and adults.”

Dimona and its India connection

While Dimona is believed to be where Israel is increasing its undeclared nuclear weapons, it is most ceaselessly is called ‘Exiguous India’. It purchased the title attributable to the 7,500-solid Indian-Jewish neighborhood making up for some 30 per cent of the town’s inhabitants. Actually, one can hear Marathi and a smattering of Hindi. Moreover, local retailers provide familiar foods equivalent to ‘sonpapdi’, ‘gulab jamun’, ‘papri chaat’, ‘jalebis’, and ‘bhelpuri’.

This occurred when many
Indian Jews moved to Israel within the Fifties and 1960s. Most came from Maharashtra, while smaller groups came from Kerala and Kolkata. In most modern years, every other folks from Mizoram and Manipur procure also moved to Dimona.

Interestingly, within the early Fifties, the Jewish Agency opened an office in Bombay’s Fortress home and started to actively succor Jews emigrate to Israel. And by 1956, round 2,000 Jews from western India migrated to Israel, namely to Dimona, making this southern city their home.

This day, these Indian Jews in Dimona are largely employed as diamond merchants, IT consultants, and caregivers for the elderly.

They also withhold their cultural roots alive via language, festivals, and other traditions. In Dimona, there’s a necessary following for the sport of cricket. Moreover, festivals equivalent to Diwali and Onam remain central to day-to-day lifestyles.

Movie screenings over a month had been attended by packed theatres at the Indian Movie Fest in November 2025, while months ago, the first-ever Indian tune competition modified into once sold out.

Dimona’s — Israel’s secret nuclear plant

Many factor in that Iran’s concentrated on of Dimona on Saturday is because it properties the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, which is in point of fact apt the largest pillar of
Israel’s nuclear programme.

Thirteen kilometres far from the first city of Dimona, it includes 10 buildings spread for the duration of roughly 36 sq. kilometres, ringed by electrified fencing, patrol roads, and anti-airplane missile batteries. It also comprises eight underground laboratories relationship encourage decades, with round 2,700 scientists and technicians believed to be working there.

A 2013 legend from the Worldwide Panel on Fissile Supplies famed that it is fundamentally accredited that the Dimona facility produced plutonium for the alleged nuclear arsenal. In step with the legend, the plutonium is probably going generated by irradiating natural uranium gas in a heavy-water moderated reactor.

A Unique York Times legend in 2025 claimed that huge construction modified into once underway at the field, with consultants suggesting imaginable repairs and upgrades.

Interestingly, a 2025 legend from the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Research Institute also notes that Israel has a stockpile of round 90 nuclear warheads. In step with the institute’s annual legend, roughly 30 are air-deliverable gravity bombs admire minded with F-15 and F-16 airplane, alongside round 50 long-vary Jericho-2 ballistic missiles. The legend also talked about Israel has kept fissile cloth adequate to invent up to 200 nuclear warheads.

But Israel has repeatedly maintained a denial of having nuclear weapons; in 2011, Top Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed UK television host Piers Morgan, “We’ve a protracted-standing coverage that we won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Center East, and that hasn’t modified.”

With inputs from agencies