Who Did Israel Target in Deadly Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites?

On Friday, Israel launched a large-scale military operation, killing six Iranian nuclear scientists and striking over 100 nuclear, military, and infrastructure targets across Iran.

The Israeli Air Force deployed more than 200 fighter jets, targeting the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, damaging its underground structures, including a multistorey enrichment hall with centrifuges and electrical rooms.

The Israeli army stated, “Vital infrastructure at the site that allows for its continuous functioning and the continued advancement of the Iranian regime’s project to obtain nuclear weapons was attacked.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the operation, dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” as essential to “roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”

Key Iranian Scientists Killed

Among the six scientists killed were Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi, described by Iran’s Tasnim news agency as “major nuclear scientists.”

Tehranchi, a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University, was on the US Department’s Entity List since 2020.

Abbasi, a former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, survived a 2010 assassination attempt blamed on Israel.

Other victims included Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmad Reza Zolfaghari, Amir Hossein Faghihi, and Motallebzadeh, all prominent figures in Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s armed forces spokesperson, Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned, that Israel would pay a heavy price for the attacks, which also killed three senior military figures, including Mohammad Bagheri.

Regional Tensions and Intelligence Success

The strikes follow the International Atomic Energy Agency’s declaration on Thursday that Iran had not complied with nonproliferation obligations, though Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

Muhanad Seloom, an assistant professor at the Doha Institute, told Al Jazeera, “The Israeli side have already sent the message clearly to Tehran that we know where your leaders are, we know who they are, we have accurate intelligence, and we have the technological means to reach inside Iran.”

The attacks, unprecedented in scale since the Iran-Iraq war, have shocked Iran’s civilian population, with Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari noting, “These scenes are very new to the new generation in Iran.”