As Israel expands ground operations in Lebanon and the world waits for its response to the Iranian attack last week, a former leader has said Israel has a “once-in-a-generation” chance to strike Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Listen to a Daily episode on the Middle East crisis as you scroll.
Tuesday 8 October 2024 16:07, UK
We’ve been reporting today about rocket attacks on Haifa, Israel’s third-biggest city, which is 80 miles (128km) south of the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah has been targeting the port city for two days.
The pictures below show damage caused by the strikes, with a man inspecting his house after a residential building in the Haifa Bay district was hit by a rocket.
By Professor Michael Clarke, military analyst
No matter what political or military changes we see in the Middle East by 7 October 2025, it will certainly be a more fragmented region.
No individual power will create more coherence than the current state of affairs.
This level of conflict won’t last at this level of intensity for another year.
If Israel can’t win a short war, it can’t fight a long one. Its economy is too small, and the leadership’s hubris may prove to be a danger.
The conflict will most likely resolve itself into a grumbling, open-ended war on three or four different fronts.
Read on here:
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant says that the next potential Hezbollah leader was “probably” killed in a strike last week.
It was suggested that Hashem Safieddine could be the next leader of the group after its leader and his cousin Hassan Nasrallah was killed last month.
Reports suggested Safieddine was targeted by Israel in a strike on Beirut last Friday.
“Hezbollah is an organisation without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated,” Mr Gallant told Israeli troops in a brief video distributed by the military.
“There’s no one to make decisions, no one to act.”
Hezbollah has not commented on Safieddine’s whereabouts since the strikes.
Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel’s third-biggest city of Haifa for the second time in two days.
The northern Israeli port city was targeted by a barrage of rocket fire from south Lebanon yesterday, with a direct hit recorded, something that hasn’t happened since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
This footage shows Israel’s defence systems intercepting more rockets fired at Haifa today.
Kamala Harris has said she considers Iran to be the “greatest adversary” of the US and that ensuring Tehran never becomes a nuclear power is one of her “highest priorities”.
In an interview with CBS, the presidential hopeful said: “Iran has American blood on their hands. Okay?
“This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power – that is one of my highest priorities.”
Pressed on whether she would take military action if there’s proof Iran is building a nuclear weapon, Ms Harris declined to answer the question.
“I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,” she said.
For context: Joe Biden and Ms Harris insist that Israel has the right to defend itself against Iran-backed militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Mr Biden said last week he would not support Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to Tehran’s missile attack last week. For a detailed look at where they are, read our previous post.
Concerns that Israel could strike Iranian nuclear facilities in response to Tehran’s latest massive missile barrage of Israeli cities have been mounting.
And, if you read our previous post, Israel’s former prime minister Naftali Bennett has said now is the time for the country to carry out such an attack.
But where are Iran’s nuclear facilities? This map shows the key locations – and we’ll be going through each location.
Just for a bit of context – we’re going to be using the term nuclear proliferation quite a lot below – so here’s the definition:
The spread of nuclear weapons, and, more generally, the spread of nuclear technology and knowledge that might be put to military use. Nuclear proliferation is controlled by the Nuclear Non‐proliferation Treaty (NPT), which recognises five nuclear states – the US, the UK, Russia, China and France.
Oxford Reference
Natanz
One of Iran’s principal uranium enrichment complexes lies on a plain adjacent to mountains outside the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran.
Natanz houses facilities including two enrichment plants: the vast, underground Fuel Enrichment Plant and the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant.
It was revealed in 2002 that Iran was secretly building the facility, which is said to be three floors underground – bringing into question how successful an Israeli strike could be.
Fordow
Another enrichment site can be found at Fordow – one that is extremely well protected, given that it’s thought to be dug into the side of a mountain.
Isfahan
Iran’s second-largest city is home to a large nuclear technology centre, which includes a Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant and a uranium conversion facility.
There is equipment at Isfahan to make uranium metal, a process that is particularly proliferation-sensitive since it can be used to create the core of a nuclear bomb.
Khondab
In Khondab lies a partially built heavy-water research reactor.
These pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.
Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to bring the reactor online in 2026, with a previous 2015 deal seeing the reactor’s core removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable.
Watch: How Israel might respond to Iran’s missile attack
Tehran
Iran’s nuclear research facilities in its capital Tehran include a research reactor.
Bushehr
Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant lies in the Bushehr area on the Gulf coast.
The facility uses Russian fuel that Moscow then takes back when it is spent, therefore reducing the proliferation risk.
Israel’s former prime minister has said “now is the time” for the country to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Naftali Bennett said Israel had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to launch such a strike, saying it was the “11th hour to prevent Iran from going nuclear”.
He claimed Iran’s proxy groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, had been “temporarily severely weakened”.
“If not now, when? Now is the time to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and regime,” he said.
He said the justification for the attack was “as strong as ever” after Iran fired a barrage of rockets against Israel last week.
There have been concerns that Israel could target Iran’s nuclear facilities in a retaliatory strike.
The US has said it would not support such action.
These images show a plane taking off from Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport while smoke rises from a nearby Israeli airstrike.
Israel has been striking parts of the Lebanese capital for days, particularly targeting areas like Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold.
At least 41,965 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October last year, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
That means 56 people have died in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas fighters. Israel says 20,000 have been killed.
A further 97,590 have been injured, it added, an increase of 287 in the past day.
For context: While some Israeli officials have cast doubt on the ministry’s figures, a number of independent groups say they have proved to be largely reliable and broadly in line with those later produced by the UN and Israel itself.
A total of 85 rockets have been launched from Lebanon towards northern Israel in a significant barrage today, the Israeli military has said.
Most were intercepted by an aerial defence system.
The country’s rescue service said a 70-year-old woman was moderately wounded by shrapnel.
Israeli media aired footage of what appeared to be minor damage caused to buildings near the coastal city of Haifa.
The military also said that it struck Hezbollah targets in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, where the militant group has a strong presence.
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