by Worthy News Jerusalem Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – The Israeli Air Force launched a sweeping overnight air campaign across Iran, striking key nuclear and military sites in an effort to cripple what Israel says is Tehran’s advancing nuclear weapons program.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), more than 40 Israeli fighter jets took part in the operation, delivering over 100 precision-guided munitions on targets spread across Tehran, Natanz, Arak, and other strategic locations. The strikes marked the most extensive Israeli aerial assault on Iranian soil in decades.
The primary targets included Iran’s inactive heavy water nuclear reactor at Arak–renamed Khondab–and its largest uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. The Arak complex, initiated in 1997 but left incomplete under international pressure, was originally designed to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Israeli officials said the strikes focused on the reactor’s core containment and moderator structures, components critical for reactivating the site for military purposes.
“The attack was carried out against components designed for plutonium production, ensuring the reactor can no longer be used to advance nuclear weapons,” the IDF said in a statement. Israeli intelligence believes Iran deliberately left conversion work at the reactor unfinished to retain nuclear leverage over the West.
At Natanz, which houses Iran’s primary uranium enrichment operations, the IDF said its jets hit specialized equipment used to accelerate enrichment to weapons-grade levels. The site, buried beneath reinforced concrete, had already suffered major damage in Israeli strikes earlier this month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the latest raid, “We dealt heavy blows to Iran and disabled the Natanz nuclear facility.”
The air campaign also struck Iranian ballistic missile production plants, air defense batteries, radar sites, and missile storage depots.
Iranian authorities imposed a nationwide internet blackout, citing alleged Israeli use of the network for military operations. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran reported no casualties and claimed that safety protocols averted any threat to nearby populations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Arak was non-operational and contained no nuclear material, reporting no radiological danger from the strikes.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in an interview on Wednesday, “There were elements for concern, but as to saying they are building and manufacturing a nuclear weapon — no, we didn’t say that.”
The Iranian government has not yet issued an official response, but Iranian media reported air defenses were activated across multiple provinces during the assault.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Iran rejected each other’s latest peace proposals aimed at ending the 10-week war, sending the U.S. dollar higher against major currencies as investors sought safety amid renewed Middle East uncertainty.
A tense calm settled over Moscow Sunday after Russia’s annual Victory Day Parade was overshadowed by fears of Ukrainian drone and “terror attacks,” with the Kremlin reportedly increasingly concerned about the security of President Vladimir Putin following a rare strike on the Russian capital.
Senior Trump administration official Ambassador Monica Crowley declared this week that the American public will soon receive concrete evidence supporting President Donald Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 presidential election in a landslide — a statement that signals the administration is moving from assertion to action on one of the most contested issues in recent American political history.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar urged the nation’s president to resign immediately in an unprecedented inaugural speech in parliament Saturday, while an estimated 200,000 supporters watched proceedings outside on giant screens in central Budapest.
A series of unusually large market bets on falling oil prices — totaling an estimated $7 billion — is drawing growing scrutiny after the trades repeatedly occurred minutes before major Iran-related policy announcements by President Donald Trump, according to a Reuters analysis and market experts.
The Israeli military announced Sunday that it carried out a sweeping series of operations against the Iranian-backed terror organization Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, striking more than 40 terror infrastructure sites and killing over 100 terrorists over the weekend.
More than 200 children were rescued and more than 350 child sex offenders arrested in one month in the latest Department of Justice targeted enforcement operation to find child sex abuse victims and arrest child sex predators.