Iranian ballistic missiles struck Dimona on Friday, wounding 40 people, including a 12-year-old boy1. Dimona houses the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Centre — Israel's undeclared but widely acknowledged nuclear weapons production facility, operational since the early 1960s. The IAEA confirmed no damage to the reactor and no abnormal radiation levels.
The interceptors failed here as well. Israeli firefighters stated that defensive missiles were launched in both Dimona and Arad but did not hit their targets, producing direct impacts by warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms2. The facility has faced threats before — Iraq fired Scud missiles toward The Negev during the 1991 Gulf War, and Iran's April 2024 barrage sent interceptor debris into the region — but neither produced confirmed warhead impacts inside the city.
Both sides are now striking in the immediate vicinity of the other's nuclear infrastructure. The United States has hit Natanz twice since 28 February. The IDF struck Malek Ashtar University of Technology — a sanctioned nuclear research institution — in Tehran. The IAEA disclosed an additional underground enrichment facility at Isfahan that inspectors cannot access. Iran, in turn, landed warheads in the city that houses Israel's reactor. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi warned days earlier that military action cannot eliminate Iran's nuclear programme and that the agency "cannot rule out a possible radiological release with serious consequences". Netanyahu's claim that Iran's enrichment capacity has been destroyed sits alongside the IAEA's estimate that Iran holds roughly 440 kg of 60%-enriched uranium — enough for approximately 10 weapons if further enriched. Airstrikes have not altered that stockpile. Friday's missiles did not damage Dimona's reactor. The margin between those two facts — stockpile intact, reactor intact — is where the escalation now rests.
