Jerusalem, 19 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — A foreign agricultural worker in central Israel and four Palestinian women in the Hebron area were killed in Iranian ballistic missile strikes late Wednesday, emergency services said, as barrages employing cluster munitions hit multiple locations across the region.
The worker, described by medics as around 30 years old and believed to be a Thai national, was fatally wounded by shrapnel in an agricultural area of Moshav Adanim in central Israel. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said he was found unconscious with severe injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“When we arrived, we were led to an agricultural area where there had been a strike in a shed,” said MDA paramedic Idan Shina. “Metal fragments were scattered around, and nearby a man was lying unconscious with very serious shrapnel injuries. Despite our efforts, we had to declare him dead at the scene.”
Roughly an hour earlier, a separate strike hit the Palestinian town of Beit Awwa, near Hebron, killing at least four women and wounding more than a dozen others, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Reports indicated the projectile struck a structure used as a beauty salon, where women had gathered ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Medics said at least two of the wounded were in critical condition. The fatalities marked the first Palestinian deaths in Judea and Samaria attributed to Iranian barrages.
Israeli authorities said they had offered assistance to Palestinian officials following the deadly strike in Beit Awwa, but the offer was declined. Meanwhile, police in Israel said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the foreign worker’s death, including whether he had been aware of nearby protected spaces.
Home Front Command personnel and residents discuss damage to an apartment building damaged during an Iranian Missile barrage on March 18, 2026. Photo by Gideon Markowicz/TPS-IL
Both incidents were linked to Iranian missiles carrying cluster munition warheads, according to Israeli military assessments and video footage circulating online. Such weapons disperse multiple submunitions over a wide area, increasing the risk to civilians.
The overnight strikes formed part of a broader wave of Iranian missile attacks targeting central and southern Israel, as well as areas around Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva.
Gideon Markowitz, a photographer for The Press Service of Israel who lives in a Ramat Aviv building that was struck, described the moment of impact: “We went down to the building’s shelter as usual when the warning sounded, and then there was a huge explosion that shook the entire shelter. There was extensive damage, but miraculously no one was physically injured.”
Another munition landed in the nearby Israeli community of Neta, just across the Green Line from Beit Awwa, damaging a home but causing no injuries, rescue services said.
Earlier Wednesday, a separate barrage wounded a 44-year-old man and two children, aged 12 and 13, in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva. Several impact sites were reported in central Israel, including damage to residential buildings in Tel Aviv and the nearby town of Jaljulya, where a number of people were lightly injured.
Israeli officials said that roughly half of the ballistic missiles fired by Iran in the current conflict have carried cluster munitions. A couple in their 70s were killed earlier Wednesday when such a munition struck their home in the city of Ramat Gan.
Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon launched multiple rounds of rockets and drones toward Israel throughout Wednesday, including an unusual long-range strike toward the Gaza border area, approximately 200 kilometers from Lebanon.
The Israeli military said most of the projectiles were intercepted or fell in open areas. No injuries were reported in those strikes, though some property damage occurred, including in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona.
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