Iran Nuclear Facility Hit Again: What We Know About the Natanz Attack

Iran’s Tasnim news agency on Saturday said the United States and Israel have launched an attack on Iran's key uranium-enrichment facility in Natanz. But Tasnim also made it clear that no radioactive leaks had been detected following the attack and that residents living near the facility were also not at risk.

Even as Iranian media confirmed the attack, uncertainty clouded the situation. According to CNN, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told the news platform that it was not “familiar with any IDF attack on that facility.”

This is the second time the facility has come under attack since the US-Israeli war with Iran began, CNN reported.

How does this fit into the broader US-Iran-Israel tensions?

The Natanz facility has been repeatedly targeted amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. It was also one of the primary targets during the June 2025 Israel-Iran 12-day war, when Israeli forces launched a series of strikes on Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. The United States later joined that conflict in support of Israel, the news agency reported.

The latest strike comes as hostilities between the two sides continue, with both countries carrying out attacks on strategic infrastructure and military facilities.

Earlier, CBS News reported on Friday (local time), citing sources briefed on the discussions, that the Trump administration has been strategising ways and options to extract Iran's nuclear material.

According to CBS News, while the timing of any such operation, if Trump orders it, remains unclear, one of the sources said that the US President has yet to make a decision about it. However, plans have centred around the possible deployment of forces from the secretive Joint Special Operations Command- America's elite military unit often tasked with the most sensitive counter-proliferation missions, according to two sources to CBS News.

CBS News reported that as of last summer, Iran had amassed about 972 pounds of 60%-enriched uranium, which is a short step away from weapons-grade material, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It added that much of that uranium remains buried underneath nuclear sites that were bombed by the US last year as part of Operation Midnight Hammer.

While US officials have said that the Trump administration has not ruled out plans to retrieve Iranian stockpiles, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that "it's an option on the table for him."

(With inputs from ANI)