Nuclear weapons and Israel

State of Israel
Nuclear program start date	Unknown (estimated 1948 or 1949)[1][2][3]
First nuclear weapon test	Unknown (reported partner in early French testing 1960,[1] reported local Israeli underground test 1963,[1] reported Israeli test in Vela incident 1979)[a]
First thermonuclear weapon test	Unknown
Last nuclear test	Unknown
Largest yield test	Unknown
Total tests	Unknown
Current stockpile	Unknown (estimated 90–400 warheads)[b][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
Current strategic arsenal	Unknown
Cumulative strategic arsenal in megatonnage	Unknown
Maximum missile range	Unknown (estimated up to 11,500 km)[c]
NPT party	No

Nuclear weapons
Background
Nuclear explosion History Warfare Design Testing Delivery Yield Effects Winter Workers Ethics Arsenals Arms race Espionage Proliferation Disarmament Terrorism Opposition
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States Russia United Kingdom France China Others India Israel (undeclared) Pakistan North Korea Former South Africa Belarus Kazakhstan Ukraine
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The State of Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. Estimates of Israel's stockpile range between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads,^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][19]} and the country is believed to possess the ability to deliver them in several methods, including by aircraft, as submarine-launched cruise missiles, and via the Jericho series of intermediate to intercontinental range ballistic missiles.^[20][21] Its first deliverable nuclear weapon is thought to have been completed in late 1966 or early 1967; which would make it the sixth country in the world to have developed them.^[2][22][23]

Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity, never officially denying nor admitting to having nuclear weapons, instead repeating over the years that "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East".^[24][25][26] However, in November 2023, amid the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli minister of Heritage, who was a member of the war cabinet,^[27] publicly stated that dropping a nuclear bomb over Gaza was an option.^[28][29]

Israel declines to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), despite international pressure to do so^{[citation needed]}, saying that would be contrary to its national security interests.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, Israel developed the Begin Doctrine of counter-proliferation and preventive strikes, denying other regional actors the ability to acquire their own nuclear weapons. The Israeli Air Force conducted Operation Opera and Operation Orchard, destroying the Iraqi and Syrian nuclear reactors in 1981 and 2007, respectively, and the Stuxnet malware that severely damaged Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010 is thought to have been developed jointly by the United States and Israel. As of 2019, Israel remains the only country in the Middle East believed to possess nuclear weapons.^[23] The Samson Option refers to Israel's deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a "last resort" against a country whose military has invaded and/or destroyed much of Israel.^[30]

Israel began to investigate the nuclear field soon after it declared independence in 1948 and, with French co-operation, secretly began building the Negev Nuclear Research Center,^[d] a facility near Dimona housing a nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant in the late 1950s. The first extensive details of the weapons program came on October 5, 1986, with media coverage of revelations from Mordechai Vanunu, a technician formerly employed at the center. Vanunu was soon kidnapped by the Mossad and brought back to Israel, where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason and espionage.^[31][32]

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