Now, with Iran and Israel in an open direct conflict, Israel scientists found themselves in the reticle after a Iranian missile struck a first research institute known for his work in life sciences and physics, among other areas.
While no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Sciences Early on Sunday, this caused heavy damage to several laboratories on the campus, stifling years of scientific research and sending a scary message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in climbing conflict with Iran.
“It is a moral victory” for Iran, declared Oren Schuldiner, professor in the biology department of molecular cells and the department of molecular neuroscience from which the laboratory was erased in the strike. “They managed to harm the jewel of the crown of science in Israel.”
Iranian scientists were a main target in a long -standing war during the years of a ghost war between Israel and Iran which preceded the current conflict, Israel has repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear scientists in order to put in place the Iranian nuclear program.
Israel continued this tactic with its initial blow against Iran a few days ago, killing several nuclear scientists, as well as the upper generals, as well as nuclear facilities and infrastructure of ballistic missiles. For its part, Iran has been accused of having targeted at least one Weizmann scientist before. Last year, the Israeli authorities said they had broken an Iranian spy ring that designed a plot to follow and assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist who worked and lived at the Institute. Citing an indictment, the Israeli media said that the suspects, Palestinians of East Jerusalem, had collected information on the scientist and photographed the outside of the Weizmann Institute but were arrested before being able to continue.
With the penetration of the intelligence of Iran in Israel much less successful than that of Israel, these plots were not seen through, which makes this week’s strike on Weizmann even more shocking.
“The Weizmann Institute was in the speeds of Iran,” said Yoel Guzansky, Iranian expert and principal researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv reflection group. He stressed that he did not know for sure if Iran intended to hit the institute but thought it was.
Although it is a multidisciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has links with the establishment of the defense of Israel, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted.
But Guzansky said that the Institute mainly symbolizes “Israeli scientific progress” and that the strike against it shows Iran’s thought: “You harm our scientists, so we also harm (your) scientific framework.”
Damage to the Institute and Laboratories have literally decimated ‘Weizmann, founded in 1934 and later renamed after the first president of Israel, ranks among the best global research institutes. His scientists and researchers publish hundreds of studies each year. A Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and three winners of the Turing Prize were associated with the Institute, which built the first computer in Israel in 1954.
According to the Institute, two buildings were affected in the strike, including housing in the life of housing life and a second which was empty and under construction, but intended for a study in chemistry. Dozens of other buildings have been damaged.
The campus has been closed since the strike, although the media was allowed to visit Thursday. Large piles of rock, twisted metal and other debris were scattered on the campus. There were broken windows, collapsed ceiling panels and charred walls.
A photo shared on X by a teacher showed flames raising near a strongly damaged structure with debris scattered on the floor nearby.
“Several buildings have been affected quite strong, which means that some laboratories have been literally decimated, really leaving nothing,” said Sarel Fleishman, a teacher of biochemicals who said he had visited the site since the strike.
The work of the life of many researchers has left many of these laboratories focus on the life sciences, whose projects are particularly sensitive to physical damage, said Fleishman. Laboratories studied areas such as the generation of fabrics, development biology or cancer, a large part of their work has now stopped or seriously returned by damage.
“It was the work of the life of many people,” he said, noting that years or even decades of research were destroyed.
For Schuldiner, the damage means that the laboratory in which he has worked for 16 years “is entirely left. No trace. There is nothing to save”.
With regard to sparkling, he kept thousands of genetically modified flies used for research on the development of the human nervous system, which has contributed to providing information on autism and schizophrenia, he said.
The laboratory housed equipment such as sophisticated microscopes. Researchers from Israel and abroad have joined the study effort.
“All our studies have ceased,” he said, saying that it would take years to rebuild and put scientific work on the right track. “These are very important damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution that we can make to the world.”