Why attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities have placed Israel’s own secret arsenal in the spotlight

Analysis File picture dated September 8, 2002 shows a partial view of the Dimona nuclear power plant in the southern Israeli Negev desert. (AFP)
File picture dated September 8, 2002 shows a partial view of the Dimona nuclear power plant in the southern Israeli Negev desert. (AFP)
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Updated 17 June 2025
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Why attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities have placed Israel’s own secret arsenal in the spotlight

Why attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities have placed Israel’s own secret arsenal in the spotlight
  • Estimates suggest Israel possesses at least 90 nuclear warheads, deliverable by aircraft, land-based missiles,
  • Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refuses to place its facilities under international safeguards

LONDON: To this day, Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity in regard to its nuclear capabilities, but it is a fact accepted by experts worldwide that Israel has had the bomb since just before the Six Day War in 1967.

And not just one bomb. Recent estimates by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which has kept tabs on the world’s nuclear weapons and the states that possess them since 1966, suggest Israel has at least 90 nuclear warheads.

SIPRI believes that these warheads are capable of being delivered anywhere within a maximum radius of 4,500 km by its F-15, F-161, and F-35I “Adir” aircraft, its 50 land-based Jericho II and III missiles, and by about 20 Popeye Turbo cruise missiles, launched from submarines.




A woman looks at a wall decorated with national flags during the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 3, 2024. (AFP)

While Iran is a signatory to the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel is not, which begs the question: while Israel is wreaking havoc in Iran, with the declared aim of crippling a nuclear development program, which the International Atomic Energy Authority says is about energy, not weaponry, why is the international community not questioning Israel’s?

In March, during a meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Jassim Yacoub Al-Hammadi, Qatar’s ambassador to Austria, announced that Qatar was calling for “intensified international efforts” to bring all Israeli nuclear facilities “under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency and for Israel to join the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear state.”

Israel refuses to sign up to the NPT or cooperate with the IAEA. Furthermore, it is a little remembered fact that since 1981 Israel has been in breach of UN Resolution 487.

This was prompted by an attack on a nuclear research facility in Iraq by Israel on June 7, 1981, which was condemned by the UN Security Council as a “clear violation of the Charter of the UN and the norms of international conduct.”

Iraq, as the Security Council pointed out, had been a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty since it came into force in 1970.

Like all states, especially those developing, Iraq had the “inalienable sovereign right …  to establish programmes of technological and nuclear development to develop their economy and industry for peaceful purposes in accordance with their present and future needs and consistent with the internationally accepted objectives of preventing nuclear-weapons proliferation.”




Iran won’t permit the blood of its martyrs to go unavenged, nor ignore violation of its airspace, says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader

The resolution, which remains in force, called on Israel “urgently to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

Israel has never complied with Resolution 487.

That ambiguity extends to Israel’s only officially stated position on nuclear weapons, which it has repeated since the 1960s, that it “won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”




A picture shows the unrecognised Bedouin village of Ras Jrabah, east of Dimona city (background) in southern Israel, on May 29, 2024. (AFP)

Israeli policymakers, SIPRI says, “have previously interpreted ‘introduce nuclear weapons’ as publicly declaring, testing or actually using the nuclear capability, which Israel says it has not yet done.”

In November 2023, about a month after the Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party, said Israel should drop “some kind of atomic bomb” on Gaza, “to kill everyone.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly suspended Eliyahu from the cabinet. Eliyahu’s statements “were not based in reality,” Netanyahu said, while Eliyah himself took to X to say that it was “clear to all sensible people” that his statement was “metaphorical.”




Buildings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters reflect in doors with the agency's logo during the IAEA’s Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, Austria on June 13, 2025. (AFP)

Arsen Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer who on X describes himself as a “proud Zionist,” replied: “It is clear to all sensible people that you are a stupid idiot. Even if metaphorical, it was inexcusable. You need to know when to keep your mouth shut.”

Israel has no nuclear electricity generating plants, but it does have what experts agree is a vast nuclear facility.

The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center — built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, allegedly with French assistance, and renamed for the former Israeli prime minister following his death in 2016 — is a heavily guarded complex in the Negev Desert barely 70 km from the border with Egypt.

Iran has ballistic missiles that are capable of reaching the Negev Nuclear Research Center, approximately 1,500 km from Tehran. Why is Tehran hitting Israeli cities in retaliation to Israel’s attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear industry, when it could attack Israel’s nuclear facility?

The answer, most likely, comes down to the “Samson Option.”

The Samson Option is a protocol for mutual destruction, the existence of which Israel has never admitted, but has never denied.

As Arab News reported in March, Israel is believed to have twice come close to using its nuclear weaponry.

In 2017, a claim emerged that on the eve of the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 Israel had been on the cusp of unleashing a “demonstration” nuclear blast designed to intimidate its enemies.

The plan was revealed in interviews with retired general Itzhak Yaakov, conducted by Avner Cohen, an Israeli-American historian and leading scholar of Israel’s nuclear history, and published only after Yaakov’s death.

In 2003, Cohen revealed that during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when it again appeared that Israeli forces were about to be overrun, then Prime Minister Golda Meir had authorized the use of nuclear bombs and missiles as a last-stand defense.

This doomsday plan, codenamed Samson, was named for the Israelite strongman who, captured by the Philistines, pulled down the pillars of their temple, destroying himself along with his enemies.

Mordecha Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician and peace activist, revealed Israel’s nuclear secrets back in 1986.

Ensnared in the UK by a female Israeli agent, Mordechai was lured to Rome, where he was kidnapped by Mossad agents and taken back to Israel on an Israeli navy ship.

Vanunu, charged with treason, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, much of which he spent in solitary confinement. Released in April 2004, he remains under a series of strictly enforced restrictions, which prevent him from leaving Israel or even speaking to any foreigner.

“We all believe that Israel has a nuclear capability,” Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London’s Institute of Middle East Studies, told Arab News in March.

“The fact that Israel found it necessary to catch Vanunu and put him in jail, and continues to impose strict limitations on him, just proves that it has probably got it.”

The emergence of another Vanunu, especially in the current climate, is highly unlikely.

“Israelis are scared,” said Bregman, who served in the Israeli army for six years in the 1980s.

“Even if you believe it is a good idea to restrict Israel’s behavior and make sure it doesn’t do anything stupid, you are scared to act because you know they will abduct you and put you in jail.

“Israel is very tough on those who reveal its secrets.”

 


Syrian government urges parties to respect truce in Druze region

Syrian government urges parties to respect truce in Druze region
Updated 18 sec ago
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Syrian government urges parties to respect truce in Druze region

Syrian government urges parties to respect truce in Druze region
  • ‘Internal security forces have begun deploying in Sweida province... with the aim of protecting civilians and putting an end to the chaos’

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Islamist-led government said its security forces were deploying in the predominantly Druze southern city of Sweida on Saturday and urged all parties to respect a ceasefire after days of factional bloodshed that has left hundreds dead.

Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in a separate speech said that “Arab and American” mediation had helped bring calm, and criticized Israel for airstrikes against Syrian government forces in the south and Damascus during the week.

Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence, which began with clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions, before Damascus sent in government security forces.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in southern Syria and on the defense ministry in Damascus, saying it is protecting the Druze minority, of whom there are a significant number in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a statement on Saturday, the Syrian presidency announced an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire and urged all parties to end hostilities immediately.

The interior ministry said internal security forces had begun deploying in Sweida.

Sharaa called for calm and said Syria would not be a “testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement.”

“The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,” he said in a televised speech.

Tribal and Bedouin fighters cross the Al-Dur village in Syria's southern Sweida governorate as they mobilize amid clashes with Druze gunmen on July 18, 2025. (AFP)

US envoy Tom Barrack announced on Friday that Syria and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkiye, Jordan and neighbors.

Barrack, who is both US ambassador to Turkiye and Washington’s Syria envoy, urged Druze, Bedouins and Sunnis to put down their weapons “and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity.”

Israel has attacked Syrian military facilities and weaponry in the seven months since Sharaa’s forces toppled President Bashar Assad, and says it wants areas of southern Syria near its border to remain demilitarized.

On Friday, an Israeli official said Israel had agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for the next two days.


Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centers

Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centers
Updated 19 July 2025
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centers

Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26 near two aid centers
  • 22 were killed near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and four near a center northwest of Rafah

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Saturday said Israeli attacks killed 26 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centers in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP that 22 were killed near a site southwest of Khan Yunis and four near another center northwest of Rafah, blaming “Israeli gunfire” for both.
One eyewitness said he headed to the Al-Tina area of Khan Yunis before dawn with five of his relatives to try to get food when “Israeli soldiers” started shooting.
“My relatives and I were unable to get anything,” Abdul Aziz Abed, 37, told AFP. “Every day I go there and all we get is bullets and exhaustion instead of food.”
The Israeli military said it was “looking into” the claims when contacted by AFP.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the agency and other parties.
The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the local population.
The more than two million people who live in the densely populated coastal territory are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, and doctors have reported a spike in acute malnutrition.
Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near aid distribution centers have become a regular occurrence, with the Palestinian authorities blaming Israeli fire.
The civil defense agency reported that nine people were shot and killed near the same aid point in the Al-Shakoush area northwest of Rafah on Friday.
The US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which took over the running of aid distribution in late May, said 20 people died in Khan Yunis on Wednesday.
But it blamed “agitators in the crowd... armed and affiliated with Hamas” for creating “a chaotic and dangerous surge” and firing at aid-seekers.
The previous day, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food, including 674 “in the vicinity of GHF sites,” since it began operating.
The free flow of aid into Gaza is a key demand of Hamas in the indirect talks with Israel for a 60-day ceasefire in the 21-month war.
It also wants a full Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
For its part, Israel wants Hamas to disarm to neutralize it as a security threat and the release of hostages still being held.
Both sides have accused the other of intransigence and holding up a deal.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still in Gaza, including the 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military action has killed 58,667 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
 


Trump says more hostages to be released from Gaza shortly

Explosions send smoke and debris into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. (REUTERS)
Explosions send smoke and debris into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 19 July 2025
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Trump says more hostages to be released from Gaza shortly

Explosions send smoke and debris into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Trump has been predicting for weeks that a ceasefire and hostage-release deal was imminent, but agreement has proven elusive
  • Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities

WASHINGTON: Another 10 hostages will be released from Gaza shortly, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, without providing additional details.

Trump made the comment during a dinner with lawmakers at the White House, lauding the efforts of his special envoy Steve Witkoff. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

“We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,” Trump said.

Trump has been predicting for weeks that a ceasefire and hostage-release deal was imminent, but agreement has proven elusive.

A spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, on Friday said the group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, but could revert to insisting on a full package deal if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations.

The truce proposal calls for 10 hostages held in Gaza to be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.


How rising temperatures may be linked to cancer cases and deaths among women in Middle East and North Africa

How rising temperatures may be linked to cancer cases and deaths among women in Middle East and North Africa
Updated 19 July 2025
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How rising temperatures may be linked to cancer cases and deaths among women in Middle East and North Africa

How rising temperatures may be linked to cancer cases and deaths among women in Middle East and North Africa
  • Researchers link rising temperatures to higher cancer rates and urge deeper study of climate-health risks facing women regionwide
  • New evidence suggests climate change may be worsening cancer outcomes for women, prompting calls for urgent regional response

LONDON: Researchers at the American University in Cairo have identified a disturbing link between rising temperatures and increases in cases of breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers among women in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The key message of a study that has identified “a significant correlation between prolonged exposure to high ambient temperatures and all four cancer types” is as simple as it is urgent, said Wafa Abu El-Kheir-Mataria, senior researcher at the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology at the American University in Cairo.

“Our findings make it clear that climate change is not a distant or abstract threat. It is already impacting women’s health in tangible ways,” said Dr. Kheir-Mataria, co-author with Prof. Sungsoo Chun, associate director of the institute, of a new paper published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

“In the MENA region, rising temperatures are significantly correlated with increased prevalence and mortality of several cancers affecting women.”

She added: “This evidence highlights the urgent need to integrate climate risks into cancer control strategies today, not tomorrow.”

The study looked at 17 countries in the MENA region and examined how increasing average temperatures coincided with how often women were getting certain cancers and dying from them.

The connection between rising temperatures and increasing cases of the four types of cancer was found to be significant in just six countries — Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Syria and Jordan.

The finding that the four wealthy Gulf states featured significantly was a “very important observation,” said Dr. Kheir-Mataria, and one that merits urgent further investigation.

Wafa Abu El Kheir-Mataria, senior researcher at the American University in Cairo. (Supplied)

“The Gulf countries have some of the strongest healthcare systems in the region,” she said.

“However, what our findings may reflect is that even high-performing systems are now facing new, complex challenges brought about by climate change — challenges that may not yet be fully addressed within traditional cancer control strategies.”

The Gulf states, she added, “are also among those experiencing the most extreme and rapid increases in temperature, which can amplify environmental exposures that are not always visible or easily managed, such as air pollution or heat-related physiological stress.”

At the same time, “social and behavioral factors, like health-seeking behaviors or cultural barriers to early screening, may continue to influence outcomes despite strong system capacity.”

DID YOU KNOW?

• Breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers are rising in parts of MENA as temperatures increase year on year.

• Even Gulf countries with strong health systems show above-average increases in cancer deaths linked to climate stress.

• Researchers say a 4 C rise by 2050 could amplify health risks, but more local studies are urgently needed.

Dr Kheir-Mataria wants “more in-depth, country-specific research in countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Our study is an important starting point, but it has clear limitations. We worked with publicly available data and focused primarily on the relationship between temperature and cancer outcomes, while controlling for income.

“However, many other important factors such as air pollution levels, urban heat islands, occupational exposure, genetic predispositions, and healthcare utilization patterns were beyond the scope of this analysis.”

To fully understand all the factors at play, “we need access to more granular data and the opportunity to examine these additional variables in context.

 displaced Palestinian woman washes a cap n the beach in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2024. A study says the connection between rising temperatures and increasing cases of the four types of cancer was found to be significant in six Mideastern countries. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“That’s why we are actively seeking local partnerships with research institutions, ministries of health, and environmental agencies and funding to support collaborative studies.”

The Gulf states, she said, “are uniquely positioned to lead the way in advancing global understanding of climate-related health risks, and we would be honored to work together to generate evidence that informs national policy and protects women’s health in the face of climate change.”

Meanwhile, it is necessary to “acknowledge that environmental stressors such as rising temperatures and air pollution can exacerbate cancer risks, particularly for vulnerable groups such as women, and incorporate climate change adaptation into cancer control plans.”

Adaptation strategies “might include strengthening early detection and screening services in high-risk areas, ensuring healthcare facilities remain accessible during climate-related disruptions, and integrating environmental risk monitoring into public health planning.”


A woman with cancer cleanses her skin in a make-up class. Cancer therapy with chemotherapy or radiotherapy can drastically change the appearance of the patient with hair loss, loss of eyelashes and eyebrows or skin irritation. (Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

Dr Kheir-Mataria said this “involves cross-sectoral collaboration between health, environmental, and planning ministries to build climate resilient healthcare systems.”

The study combined two decades of data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Global Burden of Disease with statistics on temperature change from the FAOSTAT Climate Change database of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, for every year from 1998 to 2019.

Applying a method of statistical analysis called multiple linear regression, which adjusted results to take account of socioeconomic differences between countries that might influence health outcomes, the researchers were able to identify “a clear pattern: where temperatures rose, cancer rates and deaths often rose too.”

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

This was expressed in the percentage increase in cases and deaths for each degree Celcius the temperature rose. For example, the largest increase in deaths was found in ovarian cancer, with an overall average increase across the 17 countries of 0.33 percentage points per degree.

But increased numbers of deaths from ovarian cancer were higher than average in Jordan and the UAE (both 0.48).

Although the overall increase in deaths from cervical cancer was the lowest of the four diseases (0.171), the increase was higher than average in Iran (0.3), Jordan (0.45), and Qatar (0.61).

A study says the connection between rising temperatures and increasing cases of the four types of cancer was found to be significant in six Mideastern countries. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In Saudi Arabia, significant increases in cases were detected in ovarian (0.29) and uterine (0.36) cancers. An above-average increase in deaths in the Kingdom was found in breast cancer (0.31). 

The paper points out that, with a temperature rise of 4 C expected by 2050, “the MENA region is particularly at risk due to global warming.”

In 2019, 175,707 women in the region died from cancer. But, Dr Kheir-Mataria said, it was not possible to simply multiply the study’s findings by four to predict the number of additional cancer deaths by 2050 related to rising temperatures.

“This is a question we fully understand the interest in, but we must be very careful not to overstate what our data can tell us,” she said.

A displaced Palestinian woman is being seen on the beach in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2024. A study says the connection between rising temperatures and increasing cases of the four types of cancer was found to be significant in six Mideastern countries. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Our study found a statistical association between rising temperatures and cancer deaths among women. However, these are correlations, not predictions, and they were based on historical data over a specific period, with many other contributing factors.

“Projecting the number of additional deaths by 2050 based on a hypothetical 4 C rise would go beyond what our data allows, as it would require complex modelling that includes population growth, healthcare system changes, adaptation measures, and other environmental or behavioral variables.

“We did not conduct such a projection in this study, and doing so responsibly would require a separate research design.”

She added: “That said, the potential implications of a 4 C increase are certainly concerning, particularly in countries already experiencing extreme heat.

“This is why we strongly advocate for further research, including dynamic modelling and country-level analyses, to understand and prepare for the possible long-term health impacts of climate change, especially on women.”
 

 


Israeli military says missile launched from Yemen was intercepted

Israeli military says missile launched from Yemen was intercepted
Updated 18 July 2025
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Israeli military says missile launched from Yemen was intercepted

Israeli military says missile launched from Yemen was intercepted

Israeli military said late on Friday that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded in several areas across Israel.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and attacking shipping lanes.
Houthis have repeatedly said that their attacks are an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel’s military assault since late 2023 has killed more than 58,000 people, Gaza authorities say.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.