The Israeli Air Force carried out strikes on key Iranian nuclear-related sites on Friday, hitting a heavy water facility in Arak and a uranium extraction plant in Yazd, in operations based on IDF intelligence, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced.

According to the IDF, the Arak site produces heavy water, a specialized substance used in nuclear reactors, including the now-inactive Arak reactor, which was originally intended to enable the production of weapons-grade plutonium. The material can also serve as a neutron source in the development of nuclear weapons.

The military added that the facility also held economic significance for Iran, functioning as a revenue-generating asset for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and bringing in tens of millions of dollars annually for the regime.

“Despite explicit international commitments, foremost among them the nuclear agreement, the Iranian terror regime has systematically avoided converting the reactor so that it would not enable the production of weapons-grade plutonium, and even deliberately ordered that the conversion not be completed,” said the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The Arak facility had previously been targeted during Operation Rising Lion last June. Since then, the IDF said it had identified multiple attempts by Iran to rebuild the site, prompting the latest strike.

“repeated reconstruction attempts by the Iranian terror regime have been identified. Therefore, the IDF has now struck the facility once again.”

“The IDF will not allow the Iranian terror regime to continue its efforts to advance its nuclear weapons program, which poses an existential threat to the State of Israel and the entire world,” the statement stressed.

In a separate operation, Israeli forces struck a uranium extraction facility in Yazd, also in central Iran, again acting on intelligence gathered by the IDF.

“This plant is the only one of its kind in Iran, where raw materials mined from the earth undergo mechanical and chemical processing so that they can later be used as raw materials for uranium enrichment,” said the IDF.

The military emphasized that this stage is a critical early step in the nuclear development process.

“This is a highly significant process for the nuclear weapons program advanced by the regime and constitutes the beginning of the value chain required for producing nuclear weapons.”

According to the IDF, the strikes focused on infrastructure essential to these specialized production processes. Since enriched uranium is a key component in building nuclear weapons, disabling the facility disrupts Iran’s ability to produce the necessary materials and weakens its overall program.

“The IDF will not allow the Iranian terror regime to continue its efforts to advance its nuclear weapons program, which poses an existential threat to the State of Israel and the entire world,” it clarified.

{Matzav.com}