Iran strikes Israeli nuclear town in retaliation for Natanz attack amid escalating conflict
An Iranian missile struck the Israeli town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, injuring dozens in what Tehran said was retaliation for strikes on its Natanz nuclear site. The attack comes amid escalating regional tensions, including two failed Iranian missile strikes on the US‑UK base Diego Garcia, some 4,000 km from Iran – launches that suggest Tehran’s missiles may have greater range than previously thought.
Issued on: 21/03/2026 -
FRANCE 24
An Israeli soldier uses a torch to inspect the damage after Iranian missile barrages struck Dimona, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in southern Israel March 21, 2026. © Ilan Assayag, Reuters
An Iranian missile on Saturday hit the Israeli town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, in what the Islamic republic said was retaliation for strikes on its own nuclear site at Natanz.
Dimona hosts a facility just outside the main town widely believed to possess the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons.
Iran's atomic energy organisation earlier accused the US and Israel of hitting the Natanz enrichment complex, but noted there was "no leakage of radioactive materials reported".
The Israeli army told AFP there had been a "direct missile hit on a building" in Dimona, with Magen David Adom first responders saying their teams treated 33 people injured at multiple sites, including a 10-year-old boy in serious condition with shrapnel wounds.
"There was extensive damage and chaos at the scene," paramedic Karmel Cohen said.
The Israeli military said that "interception attempts were carried out" after the missiles were detected.
Images shared by Israeli media showed an object hurtling out of the sky at high speed before crashing into the town.
Iranian state TV said the attack was a "response" to the earlier strike on Natanz.
Following that attack, UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, had repeated a "call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident".
The Natanz facility hosts underground centrifuges to enrich uranium for Iran's disputed nuclear programme and was already damaged in last year's June war.
Asked about Natanz, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of a strike".
The Israeli military also said Saturday that it had struck a facility embedded within a Tehran university "utilised by the Iranian terror regime's military industries and ballistic missiles array to develop nuclear weapon components and weapons".
Hormuz base
Three weeks of heavy US-Israeli bombardment appear to have done little to blunt Iran's ability to retaliate with missile and drone attacks across the region.
The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it faced aerial attacks after Iran warned it against allowing attacks from its territory on disputed islands near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has choked off the vital waterway, which is used for a fifth of global crude trade during peacetime.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said US warplanes had dropped 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility on Iran's coast that was storing anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile launchers and other equipment, leaving Iran's ability to threaten the waterway "degraded".
"We not only took out the facility, but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements," Cooper said in a video statement, revealing details of a strike first announced on Tuesday.
A statement from the leaders of mainly European countries, including the UK, France, Italy and Germany, but also South Korea, Australia, the UAE and Bahrain, meanwhile condemned the "de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces".
"We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait," they said.
US President Donald Trump has slammed NATO allies as "cowards" and urged them to secure the strait.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had only imposed restrictions on vessels from countries involved in attacks against Iran, and would offer assistance to others that stayed out of the conflict.
The standoff in the strait has sent crude oil prices soaring, with a barrel of North Sea Brent crude up more than 50 percent over the past month and now comfortably more than $105.
Remarkable endurance?
Analysts say Iran's Islamic government has survived the loss of its top leaders and that its strike capacity is proving more durable than expected.
"They're showing a lot of resilience that we didn't perhaps expect, that the US didn't expect, when it took this on," Neil Quilliam of Chatham House told the London-based think tank's podcast, adding the Islamic republic had deep roots.
Tehran, meanwhile, marked the end of Ramadan as the war was entering its fourth week.
Iran's supreme leader traditionally leads Eid al-Fitr prayers, but Mojtaba Khamenei, who came to power earlier this month after his father Ali Khamenei was killed, has remained out of the public eye.
Instead, the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, attended prayers at central Tehran's overflowing Imam Khomeini grand mosque.
"The atmosphere of the New Year was spreading through the city," said Farid, an advertising executive reached by AFP through an online message.
But "the thought that some people could be dying right at the New Year dinner table was painful", he added.
Shiva, a 31-year-old painter, told AFP that the "only common feeling these days is uncertainty".
"The only night we felt genuinely happy was the night Ali Khamenei was reportedly killed," she said.
Diego Garcia
Iran launched what a UK official told AFP was an "unsuccessful" ballistic-missile attack on the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean around 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Iran.
If the salvo had reached its target it would have been the longest-range Iranian strike yet. Before the war, according to the US Congressional Research Service, Washington was aware of Iranian missiles that could reach 3,000 kilometres.
Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir said Iran had used a "two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometers".
"These missiles are not intended to strike Israel," he added in a televised statement. "Their range reaches European capitals."
The attack "shows that they can still move these mobile launchers around, undetected, spin up and fire without being struck", former UK Royal Navy commander and defence expert Tom Sharpe told AFP.
On Friday, the UK government said it would allow Washington to use its bases in Diego Garcia and Fairford in England to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK official confirmed that the attempted missile strike took place before this announcement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
An Iranian missile on Saturday hit the Israeli town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, in what the Islamic republic said was retaliation for strikes on its own nuclear site at Natanz.
Dimona hosts a facility just outside the main town widely believed to possess the Middle East's sole nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons.
Iran's atomic energy organisation earlier accused the US and Israel of hitting the Natanz enrichment complex, but noted there was "no leakage of radioactive materials reported".
The Israeli army told AFP there had been a "direct missile hit on a building" in Dimona, with Magen David Adom first responders saying their teams treated 33 people injured at multiple sites, including a 10-year-old boy in serious condition with shrapnel wounds.
"There was extensive damage and chaos at the scene," paramedic Karmel Cohen said.
The Israeli military said that "interception attempts were carried out" after the missiles were detected.
Iranian state TV said the attack was a "response" to the earlier strike on Natanz.
Following that attack, UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, had repeated a "call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident".
The Natanz facility hosts underground centrifuges to enrich uranium for Iran's disputed nuclear programme and was already damaged in last year's June war.
Asked about Natanz, the Israeli military said it was "not aware of a strike".
The Israeli military also said Saturday that it had struck a facility embedded within a Tehran university "utilised by the Iranian terror regime's military industries and ballistic missiles array to develop nuclear weapon components and weapons".
Hormuz base
Three weeks of heavy US-Israeli bombardment appear to have done little to blunt Iran's ability to retaliate with missile and drone attacks across the region.
The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it faced aerial attacks after Iran warned it against allowing attacks from its territory on disputed islands near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has choked off the vital waterway, which is used for a fifth of global crude trade during peacetime.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, said US warplanes had dropped 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility on Iran's coast that was storing anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile launchers and other equipment, leaving Iran's ability to threaten the waterway "degraded".
"We not only took out the facility, but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements," Cooper said in a video statement, revealing details of a strike first announced on Tuesday.
A statement from the leaders of mainly European countries, including the UK, France, Italy and Germany, but also South Korea, Australia, the UAE and Bahrain, meanwhile condemned the "de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces".
"We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait," they said.
US President Donald Trump has slammed NATO allies as "cowards" and urged them to secure the strait.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had only imposed restrictions on vessels from countries involved in attacks against Iran, and would offer assistance to others that stayed out of the conflict.
The standoff in the strait has sent crude oil prices soaring, with a barrel of North Sea Brent crude up more than 50 percent over the past month and now comfortably more than $105.
Remarkable endurance?
Analysts say Iran's Islamic government has survived the loss of its top leaders and that its strike capacity is proving more durable than expected.
"They're showing a lot of resilience that we didn't perhaps expect, that the US didn't expect, when it took this on," Neil Quilliam of Chatham House told the London-based think tank's podcast, adding the Islamic republic had deep roots.
Tehran, meanwhile, marked the end of Ramadan as the war was entering its fourth week.
Iran's supreme leader traditionally leads Eid al-Fitr prayers, but Mojtaba Khamenei, who came to power earlier this month after his father Ali Khamenei was killed, has remained out of the public eye.
Instead, the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, attended prayers at central Tehran's overflowing Imam Khomeini grand mosque.
"The atmosphere of the New Year was spreading through the city," said Farid, an advertising executive reached by AFP through an online message.
But "the thought that some people could be dying right at the New Year dinner table was painful", he added.
Shiva, a 31-year-old painter, told AFP that the "only common feeling these days is uncertainty".
"The only night we felt genuinely happy was the night Ali Khamenei was reportedly killed," she said.
Diego Garcia
Iran launched what a UK official told AFP was an "unsuccessful" ballistic-missile attack on the US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean around 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) from Iran.
If the salvo had reached its target it would have been the longest-range Iranian strike yet. Before the war, according to the US Congressional Research Service, Washington was aware of Iranian missiles that could reach 3,000 kilometres.
Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir said Iran had used a "two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometers".
"These missiles are not intended to strike Israel," he added in a televised statement. "Their range reaches European capitals."
The attack "shows that they can still move these mobile launchers around, undetected, spin up and fire without being struck", former UK Royal Navy commander and defence expert Tom Sharpe told AFP.
On Friday, the UK government said it would allow Washington to use its bases in Diego Garcia and Fairford in England to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK official confirmed that the attempted missile strike took place before this announcement.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
'Projectile' hit 350 metres from Bushehr nuclear reactor - IAEA
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The statement, posted on social media channel X on Wednesday at 16:31 GMT, added Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi as saying: "Although there was no damage to the reactor itself nor injuries to staff, any attack at or near nuclear power plants violates the seven indispensable pillars related to ensuring nuclear safety and security during an armed conflict and should never take place."
There are no details from the IAEA about what the projectile was that struck the area of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which is on Iran's Persian Gulf coast, about 480 miles south of Tehran. The plant has one operating unit and two further Russian-designed units under construction.
Director General of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, had earlier said the strike happened at 15:11 GMT on Tuesday, and hit the area near the facility's metrological service "in close proximity to an operating power unit".
He said: "The safety of human life is our absolute priority. We had previously partially reduced the number of personnel at the construction site of Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant Units 2 and 3. About 250 employees and their families were safely evacuated from Iran. Children of employees were preemptively evacuated before the armed conflict began. About 480 of our comrades remain there. Preparations for the third personnel evacuation are under way".
In the statement issued by Rosatom, he added that "we categorically condemn what happened and call on the parties to the conflict to make every possible effort to de-escalate the situation in the Bushehr nuclear power plant area".
Background
The USA and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February, saying they were targeting Iran's leadership and its military infrastructure. Iran has retaliated and the conflict is on-going. IAEA Director General Grossi has urged a return to diplomacy, saying that "to achieve the long-term assurance that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons and for maintaining the continued effectiveness of the global non-proliferation regime, we must return to diplomacy and negotiations".
The first unit at the Bushehr plant was connected to the grid in 2011. It is a Russian-designed VVER unit with a capacity of 915 MWe. Two further units featuring VVER-1000 units are under construction - unit 2 had first concrete poured in 2019 and the core catcher installed in 2024. In January the third tier of the inner containment building for unit 2 was installed.
At an event at the International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference in September 2024, Iran suggested unit 2's then target date for operation was 2029. According to Russia's Rosatom, unit 3 is also under construction.
In September 2025, Rosatom and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the building of small modular reactors in Iran. The country says it has an ambition for 20 GW of nuclear energy capacity by 2041.
IAEA warning of risks of losing off-site power
In its latest update on the situation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that the six-unit Zaporizhzhia plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022, had to rely on its recently repaired 330 kV backup line for several hours to allow maintenance work on its main power line.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said: "The ZNPP’s fragility in the face of limited off-site power options is putting constraints on electrical maintenance. It is another indication of the critical importance of robust, diverse and dependable off-site power infrastructure to ensure nuclear safety and security."
Since the war began, the Zaporizhzhia plant has lost access to off-site power 12 times, during which emergency backup diesel generators (EDGs) have had to provide the power required for essential safety functions.
The IAEA also reported that the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine had informed it that "during the night of 11-12 March, attacks targeting and destroying an electrical substation close to the subcritical Neutron Source Installation at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology resulted in its disconnection from the electrical grid until 13 March. During this outage, the facility relied on EDGs".
IAEA officials at Chernobyl said that the following day, the site was disconnected from its main 750 kV transmission line for nearly 24 hours, with the Ukrainian nuclear regulator saying the cause was an attack on an electrical substation. The "disconnection and subsequent fluctuations in the electrical grid automatically activated the EDGs supplying the New Safe Confinement and Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility 1. The generators were manually switched off after 15 minutes".
Grossi said: "These episodes underscore how grid instability and the vulnerability of off-site power is affecting nuclear safety and security at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities."
