Iran’s Natanz facility for uranium enrichment was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program early Friday, with Israeli defense officials assessing the damage was significant.
According to the military, the Israeli Air Force strikes destroyed the underground section of the site, which housed “a multi-level enrichment hall housing centrifuges, electrical rooms, and other supporting infrastructure.”
The strikes also destroyed “critical infrastructure enabling the site’s continued operation and advancement of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons project.”
Natanz is Iran’s largest uranium enrichment site, which the IDF says has been “working toward the development of nuclear weapons” for years, and “contains the infrastructure required for enrichment to a military-grade level.”
Footage circulating online earlier showed heavy strikes at the site, which, in addition to its underground site, also includes an above-ground pilot enrichment plant.
Iran’s atomic energy authorities said the attack “damaged several parts of the facility,” but that no increase in radiation levels or chemical contamination had been observed at Natanz.
In a statement citing local authorities, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran’s only nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr had not been targeted.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, in a statement to a meeting of the watchdog’s board of governors, said the other main enrichment center in Iran, Fordo, was not hit, and neither was another nuclear facility in Isfahan, citing Iranian authorities.
Grossi said he was ready to travel to Iran to assess the situation there.
“I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation. I reiterate that any military action that jeopardizes the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region, and beyond,” Grossi said in his statement.
“I have indicated to the respective authorities my readiness to travel at the earliest to assess the situation and ensure safety, security and non-proliferation in Iran.”
Iran is enriching to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, at the pilot plant, but it is producing smaller quantities of that material there than at Fordo, a site dug into a mountain that military experts have said would be difficult for Israel to destroy through bombardment.
“Despite the current military actions and heightened tensions, it is clear that the only sustainable path forward — for Iran, for Israel, the entire region, and the international community — is one grounded in dialogue and diplomacy to ensure peace, stability, and cooperation,” Grossi said.
Jerusalem said Friday it had engaged in a “precise, preemptive strike” against Iran overnight, declaring an imminent threat from its nuclear program and announcing a domestic state of emergency as citizens braced for retaliation. Top officials warned of a potential prolonged conflict, noting that Tehran had the power to inflict significant pain upon Israel.