Iran is clearly committing war crimes against Israel’s civilian population, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told press Sunday at the site of the previous day’s missile strike on the southern city of Arad.
“All the casualties from Iranian attacks, without an exception, are civilians. So from that simple fact, you can understand the strategy. The strategy is to shoot at civilian populations in order to increase the number of civilian casualties,” Sa’ar said.
Nearly 100 people were wounded in the Arad attack. United Hatzalah said that its paramedics treated 95 patients, including 10 in serious condition immediately following the missile strike, which was not intercepted by Israel’s aerial-defense system.
Sa’ar said it was a “miracle” that the casualty figure was relatively low, given the level of destruction.
Pointing to the area behind him, he said, “Here we had a child that was literally thrown out of his bed on the third floor and found himself here. And of course, a few minutes ago, we had another attack in Tel Aviv.
“All of these attacks have no military meaning or significance whatsoever. The only target, the only objective, is to hurt as many civilians as possible. So it is clearly a war crime,” Sa’ar said.
Sa’ar also referred to the Saturday night attack on Dimona, another southern Israeli city.
An Iranian missile scored a direct hit, wounding 59 people, according to a spokesperson at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. A 12-year-old sustained serious wounds. An man in his 20s was moderately injured. The others were in satisfactory or satisfactory-to-good condition.
A total of 4,564 people have been evacuated to hospitals since the start of “Operation Roaring Lion” on Feb. 28, Israel’s Health Ministry said on Sunday.
