Iranian cluster bombs kill foreign worker in Israel, 3 Palestinian women in West Bank

Sirens activated 6 times overnight as north and central Israel inundated with missiles; Hezbollah fires at Gaza border area, in apparent first since renewing attacks on Israel from Lebanon

A foreign worker was killed in central Israel on Wednesday night and three Palestinian women were killed in the southern West Bank as the country faced multiple barrages of ballistic missiles from Iran.

Missile sirens sounded in Israel six times between midnight and 8 a.m., with the country’s north suffering the brunt of the attacks.

Police and medics said they responded to reports of impacts in central Israel. According to footage of one of the impacts there, the missile that killed the foreign worker had carried a cluster bomb.

The 30-year-old man sustained critical injuries from shrapnel in Moshav Adanim and was declared dead a short while later, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said. He was not immediately named.

In the Hebron-area village of Beit Awwa, an apparent cluster munition killed three women and wounded 13 people, two of them critically, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

The three were the first West Bank Palestinians killed by Iran in the current war. WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, identified them as Sahira, Amal and Mais Masalma, ages 50, 36 and 17, respectively. It was not immediately clear how they were related.

Another cluster munition, possibly from the same missile, hit the Israeli community of Neta, just over the Green Line from Beit Awwa, damaging a home but causing no injuries, according to rescue services.

Sirens warning of the strike had sounded in several towns north of Beersheba as well as in southern West Bank settlements. Footage showed at least one of the missiles carried a cluster bomb warhead.

Munitions also hit Tel Aviv. According to Channel 12 news, one hit a residential building, causing extensive damage and lightly injuring one person.

The outlet said that the apartment block, home to dozens of people, would likely require demolition.

Earlier Wednesday, a 44-year-old man and two children aged 13 and 12 were lightly wounded in central Israel’s Petah Tivka in another Iranian ballistic missile attack, medics said. Several cluster munition impact sites were reported in central Israel, one of which caused damage to a home.

Three other Iranian missile attacks since Wednesday morning also set off sirens in the areas of Haifa, the Galilee, the Golan and near southern Israel’s Eilat, without any injures reported.

About half the ballistic missiles launched by Iran at Israel in the current war have carried cluster bomb warheads, according to the IDF. A couple in their 70s were killed early Wednesday by a cluster munition that hit their home in central Israel’s Ramat Gan. Iran acknowledged firing cluster munitions, saying it was to avenge Israel’s killing of Iranian security chief Ali Larijani earlier this week.

Iran has launched missile and drone attacks across the region in response to the ongoing bombing campaign that the US and Israel launched on the Islamic Republic on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its leadership and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Iran’s latest attacks on Israel came after Defense Minister said the IDF killed Iran’s intelligence chief overnight, the third top Iranian official killed in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Hezbollah also attacked Israel on Wednesday, including launching rockets at the Gaza border area — some 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Lebanon — apparently for the first time since the Iran-backed terror group renewed its attacks on Israel earlier this month.

The long-range projectiles struck open areas, according to the military. No injuries were reported.

During the attack, sirens also sounded in nearby Ashkelon as well as in northern Israel’s Kiryat Shmona, where the rocket caused damage but no injures, according to rescue services.

Minutes earlier, Hezbollah launched a small number of projectiles at central Israel and the Galilee. Sirens had sounded in Tayibe, Qalansawe, Kfar Saba and other nearby towns northeast of Tel Aviv, as well as in several communities in the Galilee. No injuries were reported.

The projectiles were either intercepted or landed in open areas, according to the IDF.

Sirens also sounded earlier Wednesday warning of a Hezbollah drone attack in the Galilee Panhandle and Golan Heights, with no injuries or damage reported.

Hezbollah on March 2 launched its first rocket barrage on Israel since the November 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal. Israel has responded with massive airstrikes in Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon.

Hezbollah has said it renewed its attacks in response to both Israel’s continued presence and attacks in Lebanon since the agreement, and the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the current US-Israeli bombing campaign.