Syrian nuclear reactor

September 7, 2018, 10:35 am

Air Force marks planes to commemorate bombing Syria reactor in 2007

At Hatzerim Air Base ceremony, stickers with the operation’s symbol placed on F-15i and F-16i jets that destroyed facility in Deir el-Zour

By TOI staff

In this Jauary 25, 2017 photo, former North Korean deputy ambassador to the UK, Thae Yong-Ho, center, speaks with media at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Seoul, South Korea. (Ed Jones, Pool Photo via AP)

July 9, 2018, 12:34 pm

North Korea offered Israel a halt to its missile sales to Iran for $1b — report

According to a new book by a Pyongyang defector, Israel refused the 1999 proposal, suggested sending aid instead

By TOI staff

Before and after satellite images of the Syrian nuclear reactor at al-Kibar, which was reportedly struck by Israel in 2007.(AP/DigitalGlobe)

June 6, 2018, 6:12 am

MKs warned about Syria’s nuke plans years before 2007 reactor strike – report

Committee headed by Yuval Steinitz sent PM Sharon a memo in 2004 saying that Damascus was working on a nuclear program

By TOI staff

Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert at a cabinet meeting in 2007 (photo credit: Flash90)

March 24, 2018, 10:28 pm

Livni: Ehud Olmert ‘unfit’ to return to politics

Zionist Union MK, who served under subsequently jailed prime minister, says Israel must be led by ‘untarnished people’

By TOI staff

Ehud Olmert, right, and Ehud Barak in the Knesset on March 30, 2009. Miriam Alster/Flash90)

March 23, 2018, 5:09 am

Decade after clandestine Syria strike, revelation sparks a war for credit

Former leaders snipe at each other over who said what in lead-up to Israel’s bombing of Assad’s nuclear facility in 2007, while ex-spies blame each other for failing to spot danger

By Judah Ari Gross

A site in western Syria suspected of housing a potential nuclear facility, captured on June 19, 2014. (Google Earth)

March 22, 2018, 11:30 am

As Israel fetes 2007 strike on Syria nuclear reactor, is Assad building another?

A US think tank revisits claims that the regime is constructing an underground facility, finding worrying questions but no real answers

By Judah Ari Gross

This image released by Netflix shows Kevin Spacey in a scene from 'House Of Cards.' (David Giesbrecht/Netflix via AP)

March 21, 2018, 8:28 pm

Barak says Olmert was ‘never really prime minister,’ likens him to Kevin Spacey

Olmert ‘played the role very well,’ just like Spacey ‘played the president exceptionally well’ in House of Cards, says Barak. ‘That didn’t make him president’

By TOI staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in the southern city of Dimona, March 20, 2018. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

March 21, 2018, 7:06 pm

Netanyahu: Syrian reactor raid shows Israel won’t let its enemies get nukes

PM hails 2007 strike, doesn’t mention Tehran, but intelligence minister sends direct ‘message to Iran’: We won’t let anybody who threatens to destroy Israel get nuclear capability

By AFP and TOI staff

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting of his Yisrael Beytenu party in the Knesset, March 12, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

March 21, 2018, 6:29 pm

Defense minister regrets releasing details of attack on Syrian nuclear reactor

Liberman condemns public spat between former military intelligence and Mossad chiefs over who uncovered intel on reactor

By Stuart Winer

An F-16I fighter jet of the Israeli Air Force's 119th Squadron prepares to take off during an operation to bomb a Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir Ezzor on September 5, 2007. (Israel Defense Forces)

March 21, 2018, 2:05 pm

Blast from the past: 8 things to know for March 21

With the open secret now out, coverage looks at details of the 2007 raid on a Syrian nuclear reactor, the intel failures leading up to it and why it was kept under wraps until now

By Joshua Davidovich

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting of his Yisrael Beytenu party at the Knesset on March 12, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

March 21, 2018, 12:02 pm

Ministers threaten Iran as details of 2007 strike on Syria emerge

Liberman warns ‘enemies’ that IDF has grown even stronger, while intelligence minister vows ‘Israel will never allow countries like Iran… to have nuclear weapons’

By Michael Bachner

Avigdor Liberman (left) and Tzipi Livni shaking hands in January 2013. (Flash90)

March 21, 2018, 10:14 am

Engineers of Syrian nuclear reactor strike hail it as ‘historic’ and ‘brave’

Officials recount details of newly acknowledged 2007 operation and issue warning to present-day ‘enemies,’ notably Iran

By Michael Bachner

The pilot of an F-15I fighter jet, from the Israeli Air Force's 69th Squadron, gets into his airplane ahead of an operation to bomb a Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir Ezzor on September 5, 2007. (Israel Defense Forces)

March 21, 2018, 5:01 am

Three minutes over Syria: How Israel destroyed Assad’s nuclear reactor

Israel only wised up to Damascus’s bid for nukes after it found Gaddafi had managed to run a similar program covertly. Armed with the facts, Olmert had to decide whether to strike

By Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv

A pilot and navigator from the Israeli Air Force's 253rd Squadron prepare for an operation to bomb a Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir Ezzor on September 5, 2007. (Israel Defense Forces)

March 21, 2018, 5:00 am

Ending a decade of silence, Israel confirms it blew up Assad’s nuclear reactor

Announcement about 2007’s ‘Operation Orchard’ sure to remind Iran what happened to last country with atomic ambitions, though real reason for divulging now may be more humdrum

By Judah Ari Gross

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman visits the Yamam Counter-Terror Unit base on April 4, 2017. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

April 6, 2017, 9:17 am

Syria chemical attack was ‘direct order’ from Assad, Liberman says

Defense minister confirms Israel will not get involved, imploring international community to do so instead; says unclear if Russia had part in gassing

By Alexander Fulbright