Israel Hits Iran’s Isfahan Nuclear Weapons Facility for the Second Time
Also, IDF eliminates main the Iranian planner behind October 7 terror attack.
As the operation ‘Rising Lion’ enters its second week, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck the Iranian regime’s largest nuclear weapons facility in Isfahan, central Iran.
The objective of the renewed strike was to further weaken the fortifications of the nuclear facility in Isfahan. “Overnight, we deepened the strike on the nuclear site in Isfahan and in western Iran,” IDF spokesman Brig. General Effie Defrin said in a press briefing on Saturday. “We had already struck the site in the operation’s opening blow—and last night, we struck it again in a wide-scale strike to reinforce our achievements.”
“Overnight, we deepened the strike on the nuclear site in Isfahan and in western Iran. On the screen, you can see the site where reconversion of enriched uranium takes place. This is the stage following enrichment in the process of developing a nuclear weapon. We had already… pic.twitter.com/UbWO3M8PBV
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 21, 2025
Tehran has built many of these sites deep beneath the mountains and hundreds of meters below the ground. They have been further reinforced by layers of concrete. It may take multiple strikes by bunker-busting bombs to dismantle some of these rogue facilities. According to the BBC and other Western news outlets, Israel has been using U.S.-made laser-guided bunker-busting bombs to hit these fortified nuclear sites.
Iran was using the sites in Isfahan to enrich weapons-grade uranium for its nuclear program. One of the facilities recently targeted by Israel in Isfahan “was engaged in processing so-called yellowcake into uranium oxide then uranium tetrafluoride and uranium hexafluoride, key steps for further uranium enrichment.” Germany’s DW TV reported.
Other nuclear weapons-related sites were also targeted in the overnight strikes. “In addition, during last night’s strike, we hit another centrifuge production site—adding to two similar sites we attacked in Tehran last week,” the military spokesman added. “These cumulative strikes deal a serious blow to the Iranian regime’s nuclear production capabilities.”
BREAKING: Israel destroyed Iran's nuclear facility in Isfahan, where uranium is enriched to make a nuclear bomb. pic.twitter.com/7pWwIn92CW
— Noa Tishby (@noatishby) June 21, 2025
IDF eliminates the main Iranian planner behind the October 7 terror attack
Israel eliminated the IRGC-Quds Force commander, Saeed Izadi, who was widely regarded as the leading Iranian operative behind the October 7 massacre. Izadi, who held the title of the “Commander of the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force,” was Tehran’s pointman for Hamas.
The IDF, in a statement, described Izadi as “one of the main orchestrators of the October 7th massacre and one of the few people who knew about it in advance.”
“Overnight, directed by precise IDF intelligence, IAF fighter jets struck and eliminated in the area of Qom the commander of the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, and the key coordinator between the Iranian regime and the Hamas terrorist organization, Saeed Izadi,” the IDF announced Saturday. “Izadi was eliminated while in a hideout in the heart of Iran, following a prolonged intelligence-gathering effort.”
“Izadi was responsible for military coordination between the senior commanders of the IRGC and the Iranian regime with key figures in the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF statement added. “As part of his role, Izadi was responsible for increasing the financial funding from Iran to Hamas for terrorist activities against the State of Israel. He maintained direct contact with the Palestinian terrorist organizations in both Judea and Samaria and Gaza.”
He was overseeing Hamas terrorist operations from his base in Hezbollah-held Lebanon, and working to rebuild the jihadist group in the wake of the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza.
“During the war, he was also responsible for directing Hamas forces operating from Lebanon, according to the interests of the Iranian regime in the area,” the Israeli military revealed. “Since then, he has been committed to rebuilding Hamas’ military wing and ensuring that Hamas remains the controlling authority in Gaza.”
The slain IRGC operative was also “one of the founding figures and promoters behind the Iranian regime’s concrete plan to destroy Israel, which was revealed in the opening hours of Operation ‘Rising Lion’,” the IDF disclosed.
He was the architect of a two-stage plan to destroy Israel through an Iranian-led multi-pronged attack. “The first [stage of the assault plan] was a missile and rocket attack by the regime and its proxies across the Middle East, and the second was a large-scale infiltration into Israeli territory by tens of thousands of terrorists from Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, and Judea and Samaria,” the IDF statement added.
“Saeed Izadi was one of the key figures involved in planning and executing the October 7 massacre,” IDF’s Chief of the General Staff, LTG Eyal Zamir, said Saturday. “The blood of thousands of Israelis is on his hands.”
Israeli airstrike eliminated IRGC commander responsible for weapons shipment to Hezbollah and other proxy terrorist groups
In another blow to Iran’s global terrorist network, the IRGC commander responsible for arming Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis was killed in the latest wave of Israeli airstrikes.
“Overnight, IAF fighter jets … struck and eliminated Behnam Shahriyari, commander of the Quds Force’s Weapons Transfer Unit (Unit 190) in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the military said Saturday.
🔴ELIMINATED: Behnam Shahriyari, commander of the Quds Force’s Weapons Transfer Unit in the IRGC, was eliminated in a precise IDF strike in western Iran.
Shahriyari was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East in order… pic.twitter.com/O9nEjuauuW
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 21, 2025
The slain IRGC commander was involved in weapons shipments to Iranian proxy terrorist groups across the Middle East. “As part of his duties, Shahriyari was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East and worked for years to arm various terrorist organizations in order to directly advance the Iranian regime’s plan to destroy the State of Israel,” the IDF disclosed. “Shahriyari worked directly with the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist organizations, alongside the Houthi terrorist regime and other organizations, supplying numerous missiles and rockets, many of which were fired at Israel during the war.”
He was also a major financier of jihadist groups, funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in terrorist activities every year. “Shahriyari commanded the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars annually to various terrorist organizations through his unique connections in Turkey and Lebanon, utilizing a network of shell companies, money changers, and couriers. Furthermore, he led the extensive effort to finance and arm these terrorist organizations—an effort that has resulted in the deaths and injuries of many Israeli civilians and soldiers,” the IDF said.
Overnight @IDF eliminated Behnam Shahriyari a top Quds Force commander, responsible for:
🚨 Weapons transfers to Iranian proxies, incl Hamas and Houthis
🚨 Money transfers and laundering through Turkey and Lebanon
❗Shahriyari is EU sanctioned since Oct 2024#IranIsraelConflict pic.twitter.com/5i4YQ5gSql— Jonathan Rosenzweig (@JonRosenzweig) June 21, 2025
His killing is a “severe blow to the ability of the terrorist organizations surrounding the State of Israel to regroup and strengthen after being heavily damaged by the IDF during the war,” the IDF statement added.
Nasrallah’s bodyguard killed in IDF strike in Iran, regime media says
Hussein Khalil, the bodyguard of the slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a recent Israeli airstrike inside Iran, the regime-run media claims.
“The Sabereen News agency, affiliated with pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, reported that Hussein Khalil, known as Abu Ali Jawad, the bodyguard of eliminated Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,” the Israeli news website Ynetnews reported.
Israel eliminated Hussein Khalil aka Abu Ali Jawad, who was Hassan Nasrallah's former bodyguard. Israel reportedly eliminated him in Iran.
Jawad was one of the most prominent members of Nasrallah's security detail since the early 2000s. https://t.co/KJhN7TbP6i
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) June 21, 2025
Israeli air defense systems intercepts drones
With the Israeli Air Force (IAF) targeting launchers all across Iran, fewer missiles crossed into Israel on Friday night. The Israeli air defense systems intercepted most of them; however, debris from ome of missiles fell on a home. “Five rockets were launched from Iran overnight (Saturday), with interceptor fragments landing on the roof of a building in central Israel,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS observed. “No injuries were reported.”
They also intercepted dozens of drones. “The IAF intercepted 40 UAVs overnight and struck UAV launchers that were ready for launch toward the State of Israel,” the military said Saturday morning.
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Keep it going, before the opportunity slips away. The goal is to rid the capacity. The rest will take care of itself.
Still would love to see Israel do a commando operation and occupy the site, document what was going on, then blow it to smithereens from the inside. How nice to see that movie.
All good. Keep it up. Cripple them.
I like the way the IDF continues to attack with surgical precision and destroy the platforms and military foundation supporting the evil zealot Ayatollah Khamenei.
The decision not to take Ayatollah Ali Khamenei out, at least so far, was the Israelis’ choice. And it was a wise one under Iran’s Shiite religious ideology.
To some casual observers outside the region, this omission may truly be inexplicable. But killing and therefore martyring Khamenei would have produced explosive consequences far beyond the battlefield.
Under Iran’s constitution, the death of the Supreme Leader triggers an emergency succession process managed by the Assembly of Experts. Since the March 2024 elections, this body has been dominated by clerics aligned with the hardliner factions.
Their candidate would likely be Mojtaba Khamenei, the Supreme Leader’s son and behind-the-scenes enforcer. However, Mojtaba faces a problem: he lacks the necessary religious credentials for the role. He has never issued a formal legal opinion, never taught in the traditional seminaries of Qom or Najaf, and has never been accepted as a senior clerical authority.
In Shi’a Islam, legitimacy must be earned through decades of scholarship and peer recognition; it is not inherited, as with a monarchy.
Had Israel killed Khamenei, this would likely have fast-tracked and legitimized Mojtaba’s rise. Absent that, it would be very controversial. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq, for example, has long rejected Iran’s system of having a cleric as a political ruler. As long as the Ayatollah lives to a ripe old age, Mojtaba is both too illegitimate to unify the system and too protected to be sidelined. Thus, he may stall Iran’s succession process into a doctrinal stalemate — one that Israel has now made more likely by weakening his military protectors while leaving his father alive.
Iran’s political theology is structured around the concept of martyrdom. The seventh-century deaths of Ali and Hussein form the religious foundation of resistance and sacrifice.
Had Khamenei been killed by an Israeli missile, it would not have been processed politically, but also mythologically. His death would have been viewed as a reenactment of the Karbala tragedy. That would have sanctified his son, unified Iran’s factions, and legitimized violent escalation from Iran’s regional proxies.
These groups — Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq — see themselves as guardians of the Supreme Leader’s religious authority. Iranian defectors have long hinted at internal escalation plans that treat the assassination of the Supreme Leader as a trigger for full-spectrum retaliation: coordinated missile barrages, cyberattacks on Gulf energy terminals, and asymmetric operations against U.S. targets in the region. Sparing Khamenei denies Iran that trigger.
It also preserves strategic ambiguity. By targeting Iran’s ability to act but not its spiritual figurehead, Israel prevents the regime from invoking an existential crisis.
The message to Iran’s mid-level commanders and bureaucrats is clear: Escalation is not inevitable. There is still room for recalibration, cooler heads to prevail, and the understanding that surrender is a much better choice than annihilation of an entire country..
A nice write up and understanding of Persian society. About all I know is the ancient Persian people are sophisticated and have a view of themselves that is lofty when compared to most of their neighbors. Also over the years I have noticed many Persian women are simply drop dead gorgeous….simply so fine they could kick start a 747.
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