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Israel conducted a fresh attack on Iran's underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz on Friday, Iranian state media reported, marking the second strike on the key nuclear installation.
"Minutes ago, the Zionist regime targeted Natanz again," Iranian state media said, confirming the renewed assault on the central Iran facility. The Israeli military had earlier struck the same site's underground uranium enrichment centrifuges as part of Friday's wave of attacks.
The Israeli military described extensive damage to the facility's underground infrastructure. "The underground area of the site was damaged. This area contains a multi-storey enrichment hall with centrifuges, electrical rooms and additional supporting infrastructure," the military said in a statement.
Iranian officials reported that the attack on the nuclear facility did not result in any radioactive contamination. "The attack on Natanz has not resulted in any nuclear contamination so far," the deputy police chief of Isfahan province told Iran's official IRNA news agency, adding that no deaths had been reported from the attack.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iranian authorities reported no increase in radiation levels at the Natanz site following the Israeli strikes. "Iranian authorities have informed the IAEA... that no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site," the UN nuclear watchdog said in a post on X.
Israel's military characterized the strikes as targeting Iran's nuclear weapons development efforts. "In addition, critical infrastructure enabling the site's continuous operation and the Iranian regime's ongoing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons were targeted," the military statement added.
The IAEA confirmed that the Natanz facility was "among targets" of Friday's strikes but noted that Iran's only nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr had not been targeted in the operations.
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