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Israel’s Iran strike provides a historic chance for Middle East realignment  – Atlantic Council

The strikes also extended to Iran’s nuclear program. Israel targeted the Natanz enrichment complex, one of the centerpieces of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Iranian state television framed Iran’s subsequent missile strikes on Dimona in southern Israel — near Israel’s own nuclear research facility — as a direct response to the Natanz attack. It was one of the most alarming moments of the entire conflict: two countries with nuclear-adjacent capabilities exchanging strikes near each other’s most sensitive nuclear sites.

Israel’s air campaign was accompanied by efforts to establish what the Israeli Air Force described as air superiority over Iran, language that signaled an intent not merely to strike specific targets but to degrade Iran’s ability to respond from the air. Israel stated publicly that it was working to “pave the path to Tehran,” a statement that drew widespread international concern and condemnation from governments that urged restraint.

Throughout the campaign, the human toll inside Iran has been devastating. The independent human rights organization HRANA documented more than 3,100 deaths in Iran by March 17, including more than 1,350 confirmed civilian fatalities. Among the most deadly individual incidents attributable to the campaign was a strike on a girls’ elementary school in the city of Minab in southeastern Iran, which killed more than 170 people, the overwhelming majority of them children. The World Health Organization confirmed strikes on at least 18 hospitals and health facilities across Iran. Iran’s health ministry reported more than 12,000 people wounded, with burns and crush injuries among the most common causes.

Israel acknowledged the strikes but disputed Iranian characterizations of civilian targeting. A United States Central Command spokesperson stated early in the conflict that the protection of civilians was of “utmost importance” and that American and Israeli forces had never and would never deliberately target civilians. Iranian officials rejected these assurances, with the deputy health minister insisting that the vast majority of those killed were civilians going about their daily lives.