Alarm in Israel: A missile fired from Syria fell near Dimona’s nuclear research center

A missile coming from Syria fell around the Israel Nuclear Research Center in Dimona on Wednesday, sound the warning sirens in the region. Shortly after Israel Defense Force (IDF) fighters they attacked the battery from where it was thrown, as indicated by official sources

According to newspaper reports 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 missile launched from Syria.

According to the official statement, it would be an anti-aircraft missile fired from Syria in the direction of Israel. It was unclear whether it was aimed at Israeli planes and missed, or if it was launched for some other reason. The projectile flew into the Negev desert, near Abu Qrenat and Dimona, without causing damage or injury.

In answer, Israeli fighters attacked Syrian anti-aircraft batteries set up on the borderincluding the one from which the missile that landed in the Negev was launched.

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

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

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

The Negev Nuclear Research Center

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

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

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

Sabotage in Natanz

On April 11, the Iranian underground nuclear installation Natanz took place ran out of energy, just hours after the launch of new advanced centrifuges capable of faster enriching uranium, in an incident described by an Iranian legislator as likely ‘sabotage’ and by unidentified Western intelligence officials as a possible cyber attack.

News of the incident coincided with the arrival in Israel of the United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, during a visit for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. The United States, Israel’s main security partner, is trying to rejoin the 2015 atomic deal that aims to curtail Tehran’s program so that it cannot get a nuclear weapon.

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

The nuclear complex is one of the sites out there controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 between Iran and six major powers.

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