Israel inflicted severe damage on one of Iran's main nuclear sites

Israel has severely damaged a major nuclear site in Iran.

 American newspaper: Israel deliberately avoided targeting nuclear fuel in Iran

Israel inflicted severe damage on one of Iran's main nuclear sites and killed a large number of senior military and nuclear officials in attacks that began Friday morning. The devastating attack revealed the true extent of Iran's remaining nuclear program, at least for now.

According to a report in the New York Times, the Israeli strikes appear to have destroyed an above-ground nuclear fuel production site and electrical supply centers at Iran's largest uranium enrichment facility, Natanz. The killing of some of Iran's top nuclear scientists is a continuation of a long-standing Israeli campaign targeting Iran's bomb-making expertise.

However, the first phase of the Israeli attacks missed the warehouse most likely to contain Iranian nuclear fuel, which is almost certainly a bomb, and this may have been deliberate, according to the New York Times. This stockpile is stored in a massive complex outside the ancient capital, Isfahan, according to international inspectors tasked with measuring and monitoring it.

Israel's 100 fighter jets, missile squadrons, and drones avoided Isfahan in their first wave, even though it is one of the country's largest nuclear sites and, according to Western intelligence agencies, a center of Iran's secret weapons research programs.

The Israeli military issued a statement Friday afternoon stating that in a second wave of attacks, it had indeed struck Isfahan, but had not bombed the fuel stockpile. Instead, it focused on laboratories that convert uranium gas into metal, one of the final stages in the development of a nuclear weapon.

However, it made no mention of striking the area where the fuel itself is stored. "We have seen the fuel there recently," Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which tracks the fuel to ensure it is not diverted to weapons projects, said on Friday, just hours after the attacks began.

Inspectors have been inside the Isfahan facilities for the past few weeks, conducting final inventories for a quarterly report on Iran's capabilities that was distributed to the agency's governing board this month, which focused on Iran's compliance with inspectors' demands.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the threat posed by the stockpile, saying, "In recent months, Iran has taken unprecedented steps, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium." He argued that if it is not stopped, Iran "will produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time."

"It could be within a year, or a few months—or less than a year," Netanyahu added. Israeli officials did not respond to inquiries about why they have avoided targeting the stockpile, at least for now, according to the American newspaper. But the Isfahan complex is likely to be targeted in a future wave of attacks.

President Trump declared on Friday that "there is more to come, much more," adding that future attacks would be "brutal," according to the newspaper. But outside experts believe that avoiding Isfahan was a deliberate choice.

"The fact that Israel did not bomb a known uranium production facility in Isfahan suggests either that Netanyahu was concerned that the bombing would cause a radiological accident, or that they actually believe that Iran might voluntarily surrender its uranium stockpiles," said John Wolfsthal of the Federation of American Scientists, which closely follows Iran's nuclear progress.

There is a real concern about a real "radiological accident." Bombing the fuel storage site in its current form would not result in a nuclear explosion, but it could release radioactive fuel into the environment, creating a radiological hazard and turning the Isfahan plant into an atomic bomb. History suggests that Israel is highly sensitive to the risk of radioactive material being released.

Another possible explanation is that Israeli officials believe they can prevent the Iranians from further enriching their stockpile to bomb-grade levels—90%—a process that would take only days or weeks, according to public assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies.