Alert in Israel: missile fired from Syria fell near Dimona nuclear research center

A missile from Syria fell around the Israeli Nuclear Research Center in Dimona on Wednesday, sound the warning sirens in the area. Shortly after the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) they attacked the battery from which it was launched, as reported by official sources

According to newspaper articles The Jerusalem Post, residents around Abu Qrenat, where the first sirens sounded, and in Jerusalem, 75 kilometers to the north, They said they heard “loud explosions”.

It was also later confirmed that the IDF they fired a Patriot missile, part of the Israeli defense system, after the detection of the projectile launched from Syria.

According to the official statement, it would be an anti-aircraft missile fired from Syria towards Israel. It was not known whether it was targeting an Israeli plane and if it had missed it, or if it had been launched for some other reason. The projectile flew into the Negev Desert, near Abu Qrenat and Dimona, without causing damage or injury.

In response, Israeli fighters attacked Syrian anti-aircraft batteries deployed at the border, including the one from which the missile that landed in the Negev was launched.

Dimona, located in the south of the country, is home to Negev Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center, a central element of Israel’s atomic program. The area is rarely the target of rocket attacks.

Saturday, the Iranian press had threatened precisely to attack the Dimona facilities in retaliation for sabotage against the Natanz nuclear research center on April 11 in Iran, which Tehran attributed to Israel, the newspaper reported The Times of Israel. Iran does not usually launch this type of attack from its own territory, and it usually does so from Syria, Iraq or Yemen, countries where it has a significant presence and where it generally funds different groups.

As a result, the defenses around the research center have been reinforced in recent days.

Negev Nuclear Research Center

Israel’s atomic installation in the Negev, renamed in 2018 after the late President Shimon Peres, was built in 1958 south of the city of Dimona.

The complex includes a nuclear reactor cooled with heavy water and many other buildings which Israel claims are used for nuclear science and energy research.

For the international community, however, Dimona is one of the pillars of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which the country officially denies possessing.

Sabotage at Natanz

Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Natanz on April 11 lack of energy, just hours after the launch of new advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium faster, in an incident described by an Iranian lawmaker as likely “sabotage” and by unidentified Western intelligence officials as a possible cyberattack.

News of the incident coincided with the arrival in Israel of the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, during a visit to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. The United States, Israel’s main security partner, is trying to join the 2015 atomic accord aimed at limiting Tehran’s program so that it cannot acquire a nuclear weapon.

Natanz was built largely underground to withstand enemy air attacks. It became a hotspot for Western fears about Iran’s nuclear program in 2002, when satellite photos showed Iran was building its underground centrifuge facility at the site, some 200 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

The nuclear complex is one of the ongoing sites monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as part of the nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Iran and six major powers.

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