Iranian state and affiliated media heavily promoted footage of missile strikes on Beersheba, claiming up to 26 casualties while alleging Israeli military censorship is concealing direct hits in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, unmoderated Iranian chat groups reflect deep societal polarization, with reactions ranging from calls for Israel's destruction to mocking the regime and reporting domestic explosions.
A barrage of Iranian missiles has reportedly struck the city of Beersheba in southern occupied Palestine, triggering massive fires and dozens of casualties, according to widespread reports across Iranian state-affiliated media and Telegram channels on March 2, 2026.
State-affiliated فارس بینالملل و سیاست خارجی shared footage claiming to show the exact moment an Iranian missile hit Beersheba, causing a massive fire. The IRGC-aligned کانال اخبار سپاه پاسداران 🏴 initially cited Israeli Army Radio to report 11 injuries, before subsequently claiming that the number of injured Zionists in Beersheba had risen to 26. Similar casualty figures and video footage were aggressively cross-posted by prominent aggregators like خبرفوری جنگ🚨اخبارفوری امریکا فوری and تهران آنلاین ࡆ TehranOnline.
While visual evidence focused heavily on the south, mainstream Iranian aggregator آخرین خبر alleged that the scope of the attack was much broader. The channel claimed that direct missile hits occurred in Tel Aviv, but asserted that the censorship of the occupying army has so far prevented the release of images showing the moment and location of the impacts. The channel also published footage it described as "rain missiles" circulating in Hebrew-language cyberspace.
Despite the unified victory narrative projected by state channels, public reaction in unmoderated comment sections reveals severe domestic polarization. In the گروه خبر فوری chat group, regime supporters celebrated the strikes, with one user calling it a warm-up and declaring, "God willing, complete destruction of Israel". However, anti-regime users mocked the government, referring to it derogatorily as the "Republic of Diarrhea" and trading vulgar insults with regime loyalists.
Amid the chaos, rumors of domestic unrest and counter-strikes also proliferated within the chat. Users claimed that missiles were hitting inside Iran as well, with specific mentions of strikes in eastern Tehran and Safadasht. Additionally, anti-regime commenters circulated rumors regarding the alleged death of a cleric named Arafi by Israel and mocked hardline channels for supposedly misinterpreting CENTCOM reports about downed fighter jets.
Translated terminology such as 'Zionist', 'occupying army', and vulgar chat insults directly reflect the original Farsi sentiment without sanitization, per instructions. Claims regarding Israeli censorship in Tel Aviv and casualty figures in Beersheba are solely attributed to Iranian Telegram sources. Mention of domestic strikes in Tehran and Safadasht originates entirely from unverified user comments in a public Telegram chat.