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The Israeli military announced Tuesday that it had hit an underground facility on the eastern outskirts of Tehran where it alleged Iranian scientists were secretly working to develop a critical component for nuclear weapons, marking a significant escalation in the joint US-Israeli offensive now in its fourth day.
The military identified the site as "Minzadehei" and released a map showing its location, saying it had tracked the scientists to the facility after last year's 12-day conflict and struck the compound with precision.
"At the site, a group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons," the Israeli military said.
The announcement comes as the broader campaign against Iran continues to expand. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Saturday the launch of the joint offensive with the United States, describing it as necessary to remove the "existential threat" posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
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According to the Israeli military, the intelligence trail leading to the Minzadehei site began after the June 2025 war, during which Israel and the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, including an enrichment plant. The military said it followed Iranian scientists from those earlier strikes to their new location, "in a manner that enabled a precise strike on the covert underground compound."
Israeli officials contend that Tehran accelerated efforts to acquire an atomic weapon following that 12-day conflict. US President Donald Trump declared at the time that the United States had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear programme, though independent assessments and the International Atomic Energy Agency have since suggested the programme may only have been set back by a matter of months rather than destroyed outright.
Netanyahu told Fox News that Iran's new underground bunkers would have become "immune within months," framing the timing of the current offensive as urgent.
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