Bnei Brak

Bnei Brak became one of the most frequently struck civilian areas in central Israel during the Iran conflict. Iranian Ballistic Missiles carrying cluster-bomb warheads hit the city multiple times, injuring dozens of residents including children and elderly. On 31 March 2026, a single Ballistic missile scattered submunitions across Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, and Petah Tikva, the first confirmed use of a cluster warhead on a ballistic missile in the conflict.

The city of roughly 200,000 people sits 7 km east of central Tel Aviv. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Israel and the world's largest centre of ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish life outside the United States. Most residents are religiously observant, with a high proportion of large families and young children, a demographic profile that amplified the humanitarian impact of cluster-munition attacks. In one barrage cluster munitions wounded 12 people including six children and a 94-year-old woman rescued from a directly hit building.

The strikes intensified international debate over the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which neither Iran nor Israel has signed. Civil defence infrastructure including shelters and the Iron Dome network provided partial protection, though the dispersal pattern of submunitions complicated evacuation and clearance.