ISRAEL struck a key Iranian nuclear site today (June 19) while Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital as President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the US would join Israel in airstrikes seeking to destroy Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has vowed to press on with Israel’s biggest ever attack on Iran until his arch enemy’s nuclear programme is destroyed said Tehran’s “tyrants” would pay the “full price”.
His Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and to destabilise the “Ayatollah regime”.
Netanyahu has said that Israel’s military attacks could topple the regime in Iran and Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the “existential threat” posed by Tehran.
A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel.
The Israeli military said it targeted the Khondab nuclear reactor in Iran’s central city Arak overnight, including a partially-built heavy-water research reactor.
Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium – which like enriched uranium – can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.
Iranian media reported two projectiles hitting an area near the facility. There were no reports of radiation threats. –June 16, 2025
Main image credit: Reuters
