Israel Continues Strikes on Iran, Targeting Second Nuclear Facility

The latest round of attacks at Fordow comes after Israel struck Iran’s largest enrichment facility in Natanz

Israel has launched airstrikes on Iran’s major underground nuclear site, Fordow, a facility where the Islamic Republic has enriched uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, according to reports.

“Israel has resumed attacks on Iran,” a New York Times reporter posted on X late Friday morning. “Fordo, one of the main underground nuclear sites, is now under attack. Natanz has also been badly damaged in the strikes. Multiple locations in Tehran also report explosions.”

Fordow is located 300 feet beneath a mountain, a site chosen to protect the facility from aerial attacks. While Israel is not believed to have ordnance capable of penetrating the bunker, the United States does have B-2 bombers that could carry the explosives necessary to destroy the enrichment plant.

The Fordow strikes are part of a new round of Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. While Israel hit other key Iranian facilities on Thursday, it did not target the underground site in the initial round, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Fordow is a critical player in Iran’s efforts to attain a nuclear bomb. In 2023, the IAEA discovered that the plant was enriching uranium to 83.7 percent purity, just under the weapons-grade level of 90 percent. Iran built the plant in 2006 or 2007 but concealed it from nuclear inspectors until 2009.

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that it has already destroyed large parts of Natanz, Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel neutralized the plant.

Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said Friday that the Jewish state is committed to permanently ending Iran’s nuclear program.

“Maybe now the Iranians will be in a better position to actually succumb and give up on their nuclear program,” he said. “But if not, we are committed to seeing this operation through to the point where there is no nuclear weapons program left in Iran.”