Dimona: What do we know so far about the Iranian missile attack near Israel's 'secret' nu

 Dimona: What do we know so far about the Iranian missile attack near Israel's 'secret' nu

Iran has launched a missile attack on the town of Dimona, located near Israeli nuclear facilities, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had received no reports of damage to the nuclear research center.

The town of Dimona, which was targeted by the attack, is located about 13 kilometers from the Israeli nuclear facility.

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According to Iranian state TV, the attack was carried out in response to the alleged Israeli attack on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on Saturday.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there has been no increase in radiation levels in the area after the incident.

The Director-General of the International Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has said that the parties should avoid attacks near nuclear facilities.

According to the Israeli Ambulance Service, they have provided medical facilities to 40 injured people after the attack in Dimona, of whom 37 have minor injuries and a 10-year-old boy is in critical condition.

The Israeli Emergency Service statement added that 68 people are being treated after another Iranian missile attack in the nearby town of Arad, of whom 47 have minor injuries and 10 are in critical condition.

Israel's 'nuclear research center' near Dimona

The Shimon Peres Negev Research Center in Israel is located in the Negev Desert of Israel and is commonly referred to as the 'Dimona Reactor'.

It has long been believed that Israel houses its nuclear weapons there. Israel has never officially announced that it has conducted nuclear tests but is considered an 'undeclared' nuclear power (i.e. it possesses nuclear weapons but has never officially declared them).

The official Israeli position is that the center is purely for research purposes. But for six decades it has been an open secret to the world that Israel has developed nuclear bombs there.

All previous Israeli governments have maintained during this period that it is only a research center.

This means that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and any attempt to target its nuclear facilities is taken very seriously (in Israel).

The main goal of the war waged by the US and Israel against Iran is to completely destroy Iran's ability to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran's own Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) called the attack on Natanz a violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and said that there was no information about the release of radioactive materials there and there was no danger to nearby residents.

Iran's nuclear site Natanz was also targeted in the early days of the recent war that began on February 28, while the US also bombed it in June last year at the end of the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

In response to a question about Natanz on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said they were unaware of the attack.

Israel's nuclear program

Israel's official policy on nuclear weapons is called "obscurity" or "deliberate ambiguity." That is, Israel neither confirms nor denies that it possesses such weapons.

Shimon Peres, who served as both prime minister and president of Israel, wrote in his memoirs: "We have learned that ambiguity has extraordinary power... Doubt was a powerful deterrent to those who dreamed of a second Holocaust."

It is likely that Israel began work on its nuclear program soon after the state's establishment in 1948.

Given Israel's overwhelming numerical superiority over its enemies, its first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, recognized the importance of nuclear weapons but was reluctant to upset its allies by introducing unconventional weapons into a tense region.

So Israel made a secret deal with France to build the Dimona reactor, which is believed to have begun producing materials for nuclear weapons in the 1960s. For years, Israel insisted that it was just a factory.

US inspectors visited the site on several occasions during the 1960s but were reportedly unaware of the secrets hidden beneath the layers of the site, which were covered up with thick layers of brick and plaster.

Vanunu, an Israeli citizen who had previously worked as a nuclear technician in Dimona, was also sentenced to prison for revealing details of the facility.

According to the Center for Arms Control, Israel’s nuclear arsenal was estimated at around 90 nuclear warheads at the time.

Nevertheless, Israel remains committed to its official policy regarding its nuclear capabilities, and its leaders have repeatedly stressed that “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”

Since 1970, 191 countries have signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, an international agreement aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and promoting global efforts at nuclear disarmament.

Only five countries—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China—are entitled to possess nuclear weapons because they developed and tested nuclear bombs before the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect on January 1, 1967.

Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.