"Dimona is probably the safest place in Israel. We thought we were safe here": in the Negev desert, it is one of the most sensitive regions of Israel, with its discreet but very strategic nuclear research center.

In the aftermath of an Iranian missile falling on the city of Dimona (south), residents seem to greet the event with surprise and resignation, while showing reluctance to discuss the presence of this top-secret site.

"We didn't expect this," says Galit Amir, 50, who runs a home located in the immediate vicinity of the impact.

Six residents were in the building at the time of the attack and sustained minor injuries. "We were safe the whole time" in Dimona, said the woman who cares for people with cognitive and mental disabilities.

On Saturday evening, an Iranian missile struck a residential area of Dimona, injuring around thirty people, one seriously. Israeli air defense interceptors failed to destroy the warhead.

- "Textile company" -

The city is adjacent to the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, a nuclear research facility which, according to the foreign press, has been involved in the production of nuclear weapons in recent decades.

Little information is released about the Dimona nuclear site. Israel is considered the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons but maintains a policy of "strategic ambiguity," neither confirming nor denying its possession of the atomic bomb.

The city had already been targeted in previous wars, but Saturday's strike marks a significant escalation. It has placed this desert city of nearly 40,000 inhabitants back at the center of global attention.

Wary of the journalists' arrival, some residents avoided the question. When asked about the feeling of security near a potentially targeted site, a young woman, standing in front of her house with its door turned upside down, blurted out: "They targeted a textile company, that's all."

"There is no nuclear research facility" in Dimona, David Azran, 54, a landscape contractor near a crater and his destroyed house located ten meters from the point of impact, tries to make AFP believe.

"I don't feel threatened, I have faith," says Mr. Azran, a rifle slung over his shoulder. Then, in a sort of admission, he asserts: "They (the Iranians) will not succeed in reaching this research facility, they have tried so many times."

At the impact site, the scale of the destruction is spectacular. Debris litters the ground as far as the eye can see: concrete blocks, collapsed sections of walls, shards of glass and pieces of metal scattered in total chaos.

The surrounding houses were blown away, sometimes leaving only a few load-bearing walls standing, like open carcasses.

Amidst this desolation, fragments of ordinary life are visible among the rubble: a large fitness ball, a board game, a bag of dog food, Lego pieces scattered in the dust...

- "Everything was destroyed" -

The affected site is located in a residential area of Dimona, nearly five kilometers from the nuclear research center hidden in the mountain southeast of the city.

Iran claimed responsibility for the missile launch, stating that it was a "response" to the "enemy" attack on the Natanz complex (central Iran), reported earlier on Saturday by Tehran.

The Middle East has been plunged into a war since February 28th triggered by joint strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, to which Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and several countries in the region.

"We are very safe here. We have no problems. We are not afraid of attacks from Iran," an Indian carpenter, Krishna Vishwakarma, 34, wants to convince.

Einav Alon, 37, owner of a supermarket damaged by the strike, describes the scene: "When we came 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", while also saying she was reassured to live in "a great country with a great army" to protect the population.

In his view, the Iranian strike is a matter of fate. "We're not afraid (...) Accidents happen."