Sirens sounded Thursday in the southern Israeli district of Abu Qrenat near the Dimona nuclear reactor, the Israeli military said without immediately providing further details.
A Reuters reporter about 90 km (56 miles) away from the site heard the sound of an explosion minutes before the military’s text message.
Such siren warnings are generally triggered by missile attacks.
Israeli army radio said that if such an attack had occurred early on Thursday, the origins would not be immediately clear.
Abu Qrenat is deeper into Israeli territory than the usual array of Palestinian militants’ rockets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media have said for weeks that air defenses in the area of Dimona and the Red Sea port of Eilat were being reinforced in anticipation of a possible long-range missile or drone attack by Iranian-backed forces – perhaps even from as far away as Yemen.
Tensions between Israel and Iran are high over Tehran’s nuclear program and a recent increase in sabotage attacks, some of which have blamed arch enemies on each other.
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