Satellite images show vehicles and earth-moving activity at the Minzadehei compound northeast of Tehran, seven months after Israel struck the site in March 2026. Israeli officials describe it as linked to nuclear weapons development, but the images don't establish what Iran is developing there now.
A strike, then a reconstruction
The Institute for Science and International Security published its report Tuesday, drawing on high-resolution images Vantor Technologies took in September and October. The report describes a return to regular vehicle activity and ongoing earth-moving. At the area attacked in March, images show work on ground that appeared to be a courtyard, where the strike left multiple craters.
The Institute said the compound's activity could indicate “an effort by Iran to reestablish a nuclear weapons development capability and to reconstitute what was lost in the attack on the compound.” That remains a possibility, not a confirmed finding. The images show vehicles and ground work. They don't identify a specific weapons component or establish that nuclear weapons development has resumed.
The Jerusalem Post reported significant renewed activity and extensive cleanup in images taken on Thursday. It said Israeli strikes in March destroyed several buildings and likely underground structures. The IDF identified the site as Minzadehei, on Tehran's northeastern outskirts, and said intelligence had tracked Iranian nuclear scientists traveling there before the strike.
The IDF hasn't identified the specific component it said was under development at the compound. In March, IDF Chief Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said the site was linked to Iran's nuclear weapons development efforts. The military described the compound as designed to restore technology and advance capabilities needed to develop nuclear weapons. Those claims come from the Israeli military. The imagery shows activity, but it can't establish the purpose of each vehicle or earth-moving operation.
What the images can—and can't—say
The Institute described a highly secured compound with buildings, roads and structures partly embedded in the surrounding hillside. The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF destroyed the site on March 3, 2026. The supplied key dates place the renewed work seven months after the strike. Cars, trucks and cleanup don't settle what stood there before the attack or what is being rebuilt now.
The report also points to other signs of rebuilding in Iran's nuclear programme, while limiting what the evidence can show. In September, Israeli intelligence presented information indicating new construction at Pickaxe Mountain, a mountainous site south of Tehran identified as a possible location for restoring parts of the programme. The reporting didn't establish that uranium enrichment was taking place there.
A caption identified vehicles at an entrance to Pickaxe Mountain tunnels near Iran's Natanz nuclear facility on June 21. It credited the image to Vantor and said Reuters provided it. The caption doesn't establish what the vehicles were doing or what the site contained.
The apparatus speaks through competing claims and satellite frames: Israel's military says it struck a weapons-related facility; the Institute says renewed activity could signal an effort to rebuild; the images leave the specific work unidentified. This report offers no account of Iranian residents, grassroots organizers, aid organizations or civilian impacts at either site. The imagery shows a compound struck by a state military and active again afterward, while the claim about its purpose remains unverified by the described images.