Nuclear weapons and Israel

<a href="/facts/Israel/dEe3IcaY">Israel</a> is widely believed to possess <a href="/facts/Nuclear_weapons/QVdBcMdm">nuclear weapons</a>. Estimates of Israel's stockpile range between 90 and 400 <a href="/facts/Nuclear_warhead/QVdBcMdm">nuclear warheads</a>, and the country is believed to possess a <a href="/facts/Nuclear_triad/EtL1NLVC">nuclear triad</a> of delivery options: by <a href="/facts/F-15/8ublq0RC">F-15</a> and <a href="/facts/F-16/0KRD0Gqy">F-16</a> fighters, by <a href="/facts/Dolphin-class_submarine/CPAqRuMY">Dolphin-class submarine</a><a href="/facts/Submarine-launched_cruise_missile/YFnUVRcu">-launched cruise missiles</a>, and by the <a href="/facts/Jericho_(missile)/p0vX8qoP">Jericho</a> series of intermediate to <a href="/facts/Intercontinental_ballistic_missiles/0vKnj2Y7">intercontinental range ballistic missiles</a>. Its first deliverable nuclear weapon is thought to have been completed in late 1966 or early 1967; which would make it the <a href="/facts/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons/urhNKh4Q">sixth country</a> in the world to have developed them.
Israel maintains a policy of <a href="/facts/Deliberate_ambiguity/GFPcvhrn">deliberate ambiguity</a>, 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 <a href="/facts/Middle_East/8CD6pLWv">Middle East</a>". However, in November 2023, amid the <a href="/facts/Gaza_war/dmUoIpBw">Gaza war</a>, the junior Heritage Minister <a href="/facts/Amihai_Eliyahu/pbY31s59">Amihay Eliyahu</a> publicly called for dropping a nuclear bomb over Gaza, which some took to be a tacit admission that Israel possesses such a capability. <a href="/facts/Prime_Minister_of_Israel/NcrzDyr9">Prime Minister</a> <a href="/facts/Benjamin_Netanyahu/581DW7MB">Netanyahu</a> reprimanded and suspended the minister in question. 
Israel has not signed the <a href="/facts/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons/yE0ekVtm">Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons</a> (NPT), despite international pressure to do so. It argues that nuclear controls cannot be implemented in isolation of other security issues and that only following the establishment of peaceful relations of all countries in the region could controls be introduced via negotiation of "a mutually and effectively verifiable regime that [would] establish the Middle East as a zone free of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons". Additionally, comments by former prime minister <a href="/facts/Yair_Lapid/1LXDcUFb">Yair Lapid</a> in 2022 referring to the ability of "other capabilities" to "keep us alive as long as we and our children are here" has been interpreted as a reference to the need to retain nuclear weapons.
Additionally, Israel developed the <a href="/facts/Begin_Doctrine/Ccg7Lkse">Begin Doctrine</a> of <a href="/facts/Counter-proliferation/9dHzwjus">counter-proliferation</a> and <a href="/facts/Preventive_war/bEMSIoca">preventive strikes</a>, denying other regional actors the ability to acquire their own nuclear weapons. The <a href="/facts/Israeli_Air_Force/bcm4GjTf">Israeli Air Force</a> conducted <a href="/facts/Operation_Opera/JSkyVqkx">Operation Opera</a> and <a href="/facts/Operation_Orchard/2CYhcBDl">Operation Orchard</a>, destroying the <a href="/facts/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction/IDcU3uxD">Iraqi</a> and <a href="/facts/Syria_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction/1MLfF37f">Syrian nuclear reactors</a> in 1981 and 2007, respectively, and the <a href="/facts/Stuxnet/xa7gvYYF">Stuxnet</a> <a href="/facts/Malware/5ee7TLFR">malware</a> that severely damaged <a href="/facts/Nuclear_facilities_in_Iran/o31m0EVj">Iranian nuclear facilities</a> in 2010 is thought to have been developed jointly by the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> and Israel. As of 2019, Israel remains the only country in the Middle East believed to possess nuclear weapons. The <a href="/facts/Samson_Option/ADN38FIB">Samson Option</a> refers to Israel's ability to use nuclear weapons against attackers as a <a href="/facts/Deterrence_theory/rllU6aJf">deterrence strategy</a> in <a href="/facts/Second_Holocaust/XxSccb3T">the face of existential military threats to the nation</a>.
Israel began to investigate the nuclear field soon after it <a href="/facts/Israeli_Declaration_of_Independence/vUVGogEm">declared independence</a> in 1948 and, with French co-operation, secretly began building the <a href="/facts/Negev_Nuclear_Research_Center/P9P2pcre">Negev Nuclear Research Center</a>, a facility near <a href="/facts/Dimona/Ddy7DjvJ">Dimona</a> housing a <a href="/facts/Nuclear_reactor/8xqjIbge">nuclear reactor</a> and <a href="/facts/Nuclear_reprocessing/aTMUoYaW">reprocessing plant</a> in the late 1950s. The first extensive details of the weapons program came on October 5, 1986, with media coverage of revelations from <a href="/facts/Mordechai_Vanunu/tnLSCkSU">Mordechai Vanunu</a>, a technician formerly employed at the center. Vanunu was soon kidnapped by the <a href="/facts/Mossad/nerqo6nJ">Mossad</a> and brought back to Israel, where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for <a href="/facts/Treason/lqT6ECtV">treason</a> and <a href="/facts/Espionage/oaDJ5fAd">espionage</a>.

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Nuclear weapons and Israel