TEL AVIV (Dispatches) -- On June 13, 2025, Iran launched a series of ballistic missile strikes targeting key sites in northern Tel Aviv, including a tower complex that conceals one of Israel’s most secretive military intelligence facilities. 
The attack struck the north tower of the Da Vinci apartment complex, located approximately 550 meters southwest of Israel’s war ministry headquarters, HaKirya. 
The incident not only demonstrated Tehran’s expanding missile precision and strategic reach but also brought into sharp focus the ongoing controversy surrounding Israel’s practice of embedding sensitive military infrastructure beneath residential areas, exposing the settler population to heightened risk in times of conflict.
The Da Vinci complex is situated in a densely populated neighborhood of Tel Aviv, directly above an underground military intelligence bunker known as “Site 81,” a highly secure command and control center jointly administered by the United States and Israel. 
Site 81 is an electromagnetically shielded facility that has long been shrouded in secrecy, with little public acknowledgment of its precise location or function. 
Leading independent American news website The Grayzone has geolocated the bunker beneath the Da Vinci towers through detailed analysis of leaked emails, public records, and Israeli news reports, providing rare insight into a facility often obscured by layers of official censorship and military secrecy.
The missile strike caused immediate security measures, with Israeli authorities swiftly cordoning off the area and aggressively preventing journalists from filming the damage. 
Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, who reported from near the HaKirya headquarters and the Azrieli Center on the evening of the attack, was quickly removed from the site by Israeli police as he attempted to document the incident. 
The rapid clampdown on media access and the delayed reporting by major Israeli outlets such as Haaretz — which waited more than two weeks to mention the strike despite widespread online circulation of images — points to a deliberate effort by Israeli authorities to suppress information about the true nature of the target and its damage.
The significance of the strike lies not only in the military value of the target but also in what it reveals about Iran’s growing missile capabilities. 
To successfully hit an underground, electromagnetically shielded command center buried beneath a residential complex requires advanced intelligence gathering, precision targeting, and missile technology capable of penetrating hardened structures. 
The accuracy needed to strike the north tower of the Da Vinci complex, as opposed to indiscriminately hitting the surrounding area, suggests that Iran’s missile forces have achieved a level of sophistication that allows for pinpoint strikes on sensitive urban military sites.
The missile involved is believed to be part of Iran’s expanding arsenal of ballistic and guided missiles, which have seen continuous improvement in accuracy, range, and payload since their initial deployment. 
The strike appears to have combined advanced guidance systems and terminal targeting capabilities, enabling the missile to navigate dense urban environments and strike targets deep underground. 
The precision is significant because it undermines assumptions about the invulnerability of Israel’s command infrastructure, which until now was considered protected by layers of physical and electromagnetic defenses.
Iran’s ability to launch such a strike, despite ongoing Israeli and U.S. efforts to disrupt missile launch sites, signals a resilient and adaptive missile program. It demonstrates Tehran’s operational readiness to conduct high-profile retaliatory strikes, even in the face of heavy countermeasures. 
The strike on Site 81, reportedly part of a broader Iranian response following the 2025 Twelve Day War, underscores the evolving challenge Tehran poses to Israeli military command nodes.
However, the choice to embed such a critical military facility beneath apartment towers has raised serious ethical and legal concerns. The Da Vinci complex stands less than 100 meters from a children’s playground and a community center, putting settlers in close proximity to a high-value military target. 
Residents expressed frustration upon learning that their homes, and the high rents they pay, effectively serve as a protective shield for Israel’s military command infrastructure. 
This has revived debates around Israel’s use of “human shielding,” a practice condemned under international humanitarian law and frequently attributed by Israel to its adversaries, especially Palestinians.
The juxtaposition of sensitive military sites within residential areas complicates the application of the laws of armed conflict.
 While the presence of a military target may justify strikes under international law, doing so in such proximity to civilians dramatically increases the risk of collateral damage. 
Moreover, the decision to place command centers under apartment towers raises questions about the responsibility of the Israeli regime to protect its settler population.  
Israeli authorities have aggressively censored information relating to the location and nature of Site 81. Satellite imagery of the Da Vinci towers and surrounding areas remains heavily blurred or blocked on platforms such as Google Maps and Russia’s Yandex Maps. 
Google has also removed street-view images of the vicinity, further obscuring public access to information about the area. This level of digital censorship complements the physical restriction of journalists at the site and delays in official reporting, revealing a comprehensive Israeli strategy to manage public perception and operational security.
The history of Site 81 reveals its importance as a command and control hub. Public records indicate that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was involved in expanding and maintaining the facility, with contracts awarded to American companies for the development of its underground structures. 
In 2011, a contract worth $7.4 million was granted to M+W Group (now Exyte) to conduct corrosion testing and construction, followed by a larger $29.6 million contract awarded in 2013 to Oxford Construction for further expansion. Despite financial and legal troubles faced by these firms, work on Site 81 reportedly continued until at least 2019.
Leaked emails provide further confirmation of Site 81’s role as a command center. An exchange between former NATO commander James Stavridis and former Israeli military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, recovered in a cache released by an Iranian-linked hacktivist group, references a contract with the Israeli military forces (IDF) for the construction of command and control networks at Site 81. The email underscores the facility’s strategic function in Israel’s military architecture.
Site 81’s location near other sensitive military sites, such as the Kannarit towers built for the Israeli air force and the larger Kirya complex — which houses the so-called “Fortress of Zion” underground command center — further emphasizes the importance of this area as a nerve center of Israeli military operations. 
The interconnectedness of these facilities suggests a layered command and control infrastructure designed for resilience and secrecy, now vulnerable to Iran’s evolving strike capabilities.
Iran’s successful targeting of this concealed command node marks a new phase in the regional conflict. It sends a clear message that no location, no matter how well shielded or hidden beneath civilian structures, is beyond Tehran’s reach. 
The strike also exposes the tension between Israel’s military strategy of camouflaging critical infrastructure within urban population spaces and the resulting risks to settlers when conflict escalates.
As Israel maintains strict media blackouts and digital censorship to limit knowledge of the damage, the broader public debate remains largely muted. The incident calls into question the long-term sustainability of embedding military targets within population environments, especially given the increasing sophistication of Iranian missile technology. 
Iran’s strike on Site 81 is a stark reminder of Tehran’s expanding operational capabilities and willingness to challenge Israeli command structures at their core.