Dozens of Israeli fighter jets hit strategic Iranian targets, including a heavy water reactor and missile production facilities, with over 100 guided munitions.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli Air Force launched a sweeping series of airstrikes across Iran overnight, targeting dozens of military sites and nuclear-related facilities, the IDF announced Thursday morning.

According to an official statement from the IDF spokesperson’s office, more than 40 Israeli fighter jets participated in the operation, striking with over 100 precision munitions on military and strategic infrastructure across Tehran, Natanz, and the Arak region.

Among the key targets was a non-operational nuclear reactor in the Arak area, believed to be a central component of Iran’s historical plutonium production capability.

The reactor, which Iran began building in 1997, was never completed due to international pressure and diplomatic agreements.

However, Israeli intelligence has claimed that Iran intentionally avoided completing a promised conversion of the site that would have rendered it incapable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

According to the IDF, the strike was specifically aimed at the core containment structure, a crucial element in any attempt to reactivate the reactor for military use.

Israeli warplanes also struck the Natanz nuclear facility, the army said. The IDF has struck the Natanz facility – a sprawling uranium enrichment plant – multiple times since the launch of Operation Rising Lion last Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that the facility and its centrifuges were “badly hit” in the early Israeli strikes.

The IDF stated that the facility contained specialized equipment and components essential for accelerating Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Beyond nuclear infrastructure, the airstrikes targeted an array of Iranian military manufacturing capabilities.

These included factories producing ballistic missile components, air defense systems, and military-grade raw materials.

Israeli fighter jets also destroyed missile storage sites, radar installations, air defense batteries, and other detection systems belonging to the Iranian regime.

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In a major overnight strike, the Israeli Air Force targeted Iran’s unfinished Arak nuclear reactor—hitting the core structure used for plutonium production—effectively neutralizing a key component of Tehran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

WATCH: The IDF striking the Iranian heavy water reactor in Arak. https://t.co/oWt8JzypRu pic.twitter.com/4lmeHJ9bzp

— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 19, 2025

This nuclear reactor in Arak was created for one purpose: to build a nuclear bomb.

It has now been neutralized. Here is a closer look at the reactor itself: pic.twitter.com/4KBDsgp8IN

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 19, 2025

תקיפות חיל האוויר הלילה באיראן: 40 מטוסי קרב תקפו עשרות מטרות צבאיות עם יותר מ-100 חימושים

צה״ל תקף כור גרעיני שאינו פעיל במרחב אראכ שבאיראן

40 מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו במהלך הלילה, בהכוונה מודיעינית מדויקת של אגף המודיעין, עם יותר מ-100 חימושים, עשרות מטרות צבאיות בטהראן… pic.twitter.com/llhYbkFXIF

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 19, 2025

Iran’s state-run TV broadcast images Thursday showing the aftermath of an explosion at the Khondab heavy-water complex near Arak, a key site in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.pic.twitter.com/v5mP2E0B0c

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 19, 2025

AFTER: Arak Heavy Water Reactor https://t.co/F3Ygg0OjoF pic.twitter.com/NQq07K8nFA

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 19, 2025

Last night (June 19), the nuclear reactor in the Arak area of Iran was attacked. This is a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor. Heavy water is used for cooling, however a byproduct of using heavy water is plutonium which can be used to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly… pic.twitter.com/VU0fg7mD8i

— Israel-Alma (@Israel_Alma_org) June 19, 2025

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The report followed comments by Iran’s president that his country’s nuclear experts were testing a new type of advanced centrifuge.

By World Israel News Staff 

“The secondary circuit of the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor will be operational on Monday in the presence of Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi,” according to the Iranian Mehr News Agency.

The report followed comments made last Wednesday by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani that his country’s nuclear experts were testing a new type of advanced centrifuge.

“The Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, currently undergoing the process of modernization, consists of two circuits,” said Mehr.

“The first circuit is tasked with removing heat from the heart of the reactor, and the secondary circuit is responsible for transferring the heat from the first circuit to cooling towers and finally to the outside environment,” it reported.

“The secondary circuit of the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor, which will become operational today, includes heat exchangers, the middle pool, and transmission pumps,” the news agency added.

“The starting of the secondary circuit will not violate restrictions placed on Iran’s nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers, but shows Iran is continuing work to develop the reactor amid renewed tensions with the United States,” reported Reuters.

As part of the nuclear accord, Reuters notes, “the core of the Arak reactor was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable, but Iran was able to continue to produce heavy water.”

The accord was reached between Tehran and six world powers: Russia, China, France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. Obama administration.

In May 2018, President Donald Trump announced that Washington was pulling out of the agreement on the grounds that it did not include enough safeguards against the development of an Iranian nuclear military program and because it did not address Iranian aggression in the region.

Voicing disappointment that Europe was not doing enough to save the nuclear agreement and to protect Iran from renewed U.S. sanctions, Iranian leaders vowed to continue to violate the nuclear accord through increased uranium enrichment.

The post Iran flips ‘secondary’ circuit on Iran heavy water nuclear reactor, news agency reports appeared first on World Israel News.

Iran appears to be partially complying with the US-led nuclear deal after it apparently removed the core from the Arak heavy water plant and filled the area with concrete.

By: Atara Beck, World Israel News

Iran has reportedly taken out the core at its heavy water reactor in Arak, in compliance with the nuclear deal signed with six world powers, the Iranian Fars News Agency reported on Monday.

“The operation was accomplished today and the core has been filled with cement,” an Iranian official stated for Fars News.

This step by the Islamic Republic now requires the P5+1 Powers to initiate action to remove all sanctions against Tehran, the official claimed.

According to the source, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to confirm the operation in the next few days in a final report on Iran’s full compliance with its undertakings under the Vienna nuclear accord sealed in July.

“Following the IAEA approval, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini will issue a joint statement to declare that Iran has met its end of the bargain,” the source said, and added, “And then it will be the six world powers’ turn to comply with their undertaking and remove the sanctions.”

The removal of Arak’s core is part of the compliance with the deal, but the core is to be replaced with a new one in coming years that will produce a much smaller size of plutonium.

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