Israel Says it Targeted Nuclear Sites in Iran's Natanz and Arak

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the Arak heavy water reaction in Iran on March 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the Arak heavy water reaction in Iran on March 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Israel Says it Targeted Nuclear Sites in Iran's Natanz and Arak

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the Arak heavy water reaction in Iran on March 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the Arak heavy water reaction in Iran on March 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

The Israeli military said on Thursday it had targeted the Arak nuclear reactor in Iran overnight and struck what it said was a nuclear weapons development site in the area of Natanz.

Among its nuclear sites, Iran had a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak and now Khondab.

Iranian media reported on Thursday morning that air defenses were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility, with two projectiles hitting an area close to it.

Officials told Iranian state TV that evacuations were made prior to the strikes and that no risks of radiation or casualties were detected. There was no mention of any damage.

Natanz, which Israel had previously struck during its six-day-old aerial war with Iran, was the site of a complex at the heart of Iran's nuclear program that included two enrichment plants.

The Israeli military added that it targeted the structure of the reactor's core seal in Arak, which it identified as a key component in plutonium production.
Khondab hosts a partially-built heavy-water research reactor.

Construction was halted under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and the reactor's core was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable.

However, Iran informed the UN's nuclear watchdog it planned to start operating the reactor in 2026.

Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of a bomb.

Iran says its nuclear program, the target of Israeli strikes, is purely for peaceful purposes.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.

Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production -- meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and stockpile.

As part of negotiations around the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to sell off its heavy water to the West to remain in compliance with the accord’s terms. Even the US purchased some 32 tons of heavy water for over $8 million in one deal. That was one issue that drew criticism from opponents to the deal.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.