Iran strikes near Israeli nuclear research centre
Iranian missiles struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research centre, while President Donald Trump warned the US will “obliterate” Iranian power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
The developments signalled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week. Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home. Trump said he’s giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks.
He said the US would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, is a critical pathway for the world’s flow of oil. Attacks on commercial ships and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from carrying oil, gas and other goods through the passage. That’s also led to cuts in output from some of the world’s largest producers, because their crude has nowhere to go.
The Iranian strikes in Israel came after Tehran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz was hit earlier in the day.
Israel’s military said it was not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, the largest near the centre in Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert. It was the first time Iranian missiles penetrated Israel’s air defense systems in the area around the nuclear site.
“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X before word of the Arad strike spread.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more emergency crews were being sent to the scene. “This is a very difficult evening,” he said.
Rescue workers said the direct hit in Arad caused widespread damage across at least 10 apartment buildings, three of them badly damaged and in danger of collapsing. At least 64 people were taken to hospitals.
Dimona is about 20 km west of the nuclear research centre and Arad is around 35 km north. Israel is believed to be the only West Asian nation with nuclear weapons, though its leaders refuse to confirm or deny their existence. The UN nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli centre or abnormal radiation levels.
“The war is not close to ending,” Israel’s army chief, Gen. Eyal Zamir, said earlier in the day.
Iran also targeted the joint UK-US Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean about 4,000 km away, suggesting that Tehran has missiles that can go farther than previously acknowledged -- or that it had used its space programme for an improvised launch.
The US and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programmes and its support for armed proxies. There have been no signs of an uprising, while internet restrictions limit information from Iran.
