Israel struck Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor on Thursday, according to Iranian state television. Two projectiles were fired at the facility around 6 a.m. local time, IRIB said.

The report said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had already been evacuated before the attack.

Israel’s military had warned earlier Thursday morning it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area.

In what appeared to be a retaliatory attack, Iran hit the largest hospital in southern Israel.

The Arak heavy water reactor was a focus of the 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other powers, because heavy water (or deuterium oxide) can be used to produce plutonium – providing Iran with a second pathway to a potential nuclear bomb, beyond enriched uranium.

Under the deal, Iran was required to redesign Arak into a peaceful research facility which could no longer produce weapons-grade plutonium. However, in the years since and following the US withdrawal, Iran has breached some aspects of the deal and no longer allows UN inspectors to monitor its production or stocks of heavy water.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)