Iran pierces Israeli air defense and strikes its nuclear sites

More than 100 people were injured on Saturday by Iranian strikes in the cities of Dimona and Arad in southern Israel, “after Israeli air defenses failed to intercept at least two ballistic missiles,” reports The Times of Israel.

“Iranian state media claimed that these strikes targeted the Israeli nuclear research center, located about 10 kilometers from Dimona and 30 kilometers from Arad, in retaliation for a presumed American attack on the Iranian uranium enrichment site of Natanz earlier in the day,” the Israeli source specifies.

Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the attack, although the Israeli military denied any involvement. The United States neither confirmed nor denied.

According to Israeli emergency services, “at least 27 people were injured in Dimona, including a teenager who suffered serious injuries from shrapnel caused by the missile impact,” as detailed by Haaretz. “In Arad, about 84 people were injured, including ten in serious condition.”

“These Iranian strikes, which managed to ‘outplay the formidable air defenses’ of the Israeli state, ‘show that Tehran is still able to inflict damage, even after three weeks of devastating airstrikes carried out by the United States and Israel,'” observes The New York Times.

“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the highly protected Dimona region, this marks, operationally, the entry into a new phase of the battle,” declared Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, President of the Iranian Parliament, as reported by Politico.

Indeed, with these strikes on Arad and Dimona, “the Revolutionary Guards have reached an additional target: to prove that the military hierarchy still works and that certain targets are not chosen randomly,” adds Il Corriere della Sera.

“Tehran wants to maintain a dynamic of retaliation,” explains expert Danny Citrinowicz to the Italian daily. “It’s the law of retaliation: what you do to us, we will do to you. And worse. They strengthen their deterrence capability, it’s not about random retaliation.”

“Al-Jazeera interviewed Abas Aslani, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies on the Middle East in Tehran, who also believes that Iran is adopting a ‘tooth for a tooth’ approach, designed to restore deterrence.”

“Tehran wants to bridge the gap between words and actions,” he said, adding that “Iran’s goal was to make its threats credible enough to establish a new long-term security system – not just to impose a ceasefire, but to establish deterrence.”

“Very difficult evening for Israel” The Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center in the Negev, Dimona, “is often referred to, in common parlance, as the ‘Dimona reactor’. It is widely acknowledged to house Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal,” explains the BBC.

“Officially, the site is supposed to be dedicated exclusively to research,” the broadcaster continues. “However, for more than six decades, it has been an open secret that Israel has developed a nuclear bomb there, even though each successive government has maintained an ambiguous position on the subject.”

“As a result, Israel remains the only nuclear power in the Middle East. Consequently, any sign indicating that it is being targeted is treated with the utmost seriousness by the Israeli state,” notes the British media.

“It was a very difficult evening in the battle for our future,” admitted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. “We are determined to continue to strike our enemies on all fronts,” he reassured.