\nhypersonic ballistic missiles and destructive
\ndrone weaponry, capable of transforming
\nIsrael’s military bases and intelligence sites
\ninto desolate parking lots without the use of
\nnuclear weapons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
Secret Israeli military bunker located under Tel Aviv tower struck by Iran, analysis shows<\/h1>\n
Posted by Jonas E. Alexis, Senior Editor | VT<\/p>\n
Jack Poulson<\/h3>\nThe Grayzone has geolocated the underground bunker of an important military command and control center nestled within a densely populated Tel Aviv neighborhood. Known as \u2018Site 81,\u2019 the U.S.-built facility houses a hyper-secretive intelligence base.<\/h3>\n
When Iran struck a series of targets in the heart of north Tel Aviv with ballistic missiles on June 13, Israeli authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent journalists from filming the damage. \u201cThe building on this compound was just hit,\u201d Trey Yingst of Fox News reported as he arrived that evening at the site of HaKirya, Israel\u2019s Defense Ministry headquarters, and the nearby Azrieli Center. But within seconds, Israeli police officers arrived to aggressively\u00a0shunt Yingst away<\/a>\u00a0from where he was standing, just north of the HaKirya Bridge on the west side of Menachem Begin Road.<\/p>\n That day, Iranian missiles\u00a0struck<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0north tower<\/a>\u00a0of the Da Vinci apartment complex roughly 550 meters southwest of Yingst\u2019s location. The Grayzone has determined that the building sits immediately south of the\u00a0\u201cCanarit\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0\u201cKannarit\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Israeli Air Force towers and above an underground military intelligence bunker jointly administered by the US and Israeli militaries. According to an analysis of leaked emails, public documents, and Israeli news reports, the location is host to a highly secretive, electromagnetically shielded intelligence facility known as \u201cSite 81.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel aggressively censors information relating to its urban military and intelligence facilities while simultaneously accusing its adversaries of engaging in\u00a0\u2018human shielding\u2019<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a practice of protecting military targets with civilian populations that is prohibited by international humanitarian law. While the existence of a U.S. Army\u00a0project<\/a>\u00a0to expand Site 81 to a\u00a06,000 square-meter<\/a>\u00a0facility was widely reported from government records circa 2013, the specific location remained unknown.<\/p>\n A photo taken outside of Site 81 has now been geolocated to the grounds of the Da Vinci apartment complex, which one resident\u00a0decried<\/a>\u00a0as a shield for the Israeli military headquarters. Leaked emails from a former Israeli military Chief of Staff further indicate that Site 81 is an important command and control node. The Jerusalem Post also\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that an Iranian missile that struck the Da Vinci towers was \u201cjust a stone\u2019s throw from Netanyahu\u2019s office,\u201d which was then known as \u201cBuilding 22.\u201d The prime minister\u2019s office began undergoing renovations just weeks after the 2025 Twelve Day War between Israel and Iran, and is rumored to have been damaged in the strike.<\/p>\n The Israeli military has constructed a larger underground command center in Kirya known as the \u201cFortress of Zion,\u201d\u00a0extending<\/a>\u00a0an older command center known as\u00a0\u201cThe Pit.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Given its temporal, spatial, and functional proximity, it is likely that \u201cThe Pit\u201d was connected to Site 81. Journalists from Israel Hayom and\u00a0The New York Times<\/a>\u00a0have visited the Fortress of Zion but not revealed its precise location or that of its entrance.<\/p>\n Despite the end of U.S. legislation banning its publication, Google Maps continues to\u00a0blur<\/a>\u00a0satellite imagery containing any hint of sensitive Israeli strategic information. At the section of Leonardo da Vinci St. directly in front of the Da Vinci Towers, Google took its pro-Israel censorship a step further, refusing to offer street view images of the location. The area east of Leonardo Da Vinci St. and west of Azrieli Center is also censored by the Moscow-based Yandex Maps, with both satellite imagery and metadata of the Da Vinci towers\u00a0completely blocked<\/a>.<\/p>\n A photo of Site 81 published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in February 2013 as part of a\u00a0corrosion test<\/a>\u00a0of the underground structure\u2019s concrete overlay and galvanized steel plating can be geolocated to what is now the site of the Da Vinci apartment towers, with the southern of the two 18-story Israeli Air Force Kannarit towers just meters away. According to a\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0for the Kannarit towers published by the Israeli construction firm Danya Cebus, the buildings were \u201cconstructed for the [Israeli] Air Force Headquarters.\u201d The Israeli aluminum building enclosure company Alumeshet\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0its work on the towers in 2002 as including the construction of \u201ca blast mitigation system ensuring maximum security.\u201d<\/p>\n Haaretz has\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0the existence of the Army Corps report, concluding that Site 81 was located somewhere in central Tel Aviv. A closer analysis of a photograph in the report reveals it was taken roughly 60 meters north of Eliezer Kaplan St. on the east side of Leonardo da Vinci St., in the southwestern corner of the Ha\u2019Kirya.<\/p>\n The east face of the 29-floor Daniel Frisch Tower fills much of the background of the Army Corps photo, which shows two large instrument cases set to be transported into the basement of Site 81. Located roughly 160 meters northwest from the photographer, trees from the Gerry Pencer Park partially obstruct the base of the tower, with the top of the London Ministores Tower also visible just to the right.<\/p>\n The features from the Army Corps photo precisely match those of a February 2019 image published to Google Maps from the southwest corner of Eliezer Kaplan and Leonardo da Vinci, which includes the same five distinctive curved pipes connected to the Kannarit tower just above the razor wire.<\/p>\n A\u00a0detailed report<\/a>\u00a0from France 24 regarding Israeli censorship of reporting on the Iranian strikes concluded that coverage of the attack on the\u00a042-story<\/a>\u00a0Da Vinci Towers had likely been purposefully delayed, stating that \u201cit looks like censorship is at play.\u201d The outlet noted that \u201cIsraeli newspaper Haaretz waited until June 29 to mention this strike in an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a full two weeks after the attack took place, even though the images of it had already circulated online.\u201d<\/p>\n When\u00a0recounting the incident<\/a>\u00a0to Israeli media weeks later, one resident recalled being informed of the tower\u2019s true purpose in a conversation with a friend, who asked: \u201cBrother, don\u2019t you get that they approved the construction of all those towers to protect the Kirya?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToday, I realize I\u2019ve been paying 12,000 shekels [$3,650 USD] a month to protect the Kirya,\u201d the resident explained, using the common shorthand for the Israeli military headquarters.<\/p>\n The geolocation of the Site 81 photo suggests that the Da Vinci Towers are also protecting the secretive underground intelligence facility. The bunker is apparently located less than 100 meters from a children\u2019s playground, alongside a large\u00a0community center<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0opened<\/a>\u00a0at the base of the towers in July 2023. By situating some of its most sensitive military installations in the heart of a civilian area, Israel has engaged in the human shielding practice it routinely accuses Palestinians of exploiting.<\/p>\n The tenants of an eight-story commercial building nestled inside the Da Vinci complex also enjoy direct ties to military intelligence. The Israeli generative artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs, which was founded by veterans of the IDF\u2019s signals intelligence arm, Unit 8200, earlier this year\u00a0confirmed<\/a>\u00a0the participation of AI21 employees in developing a ChatGPT-like military AI tool targeting Palestinians. AI21 \u2013 which has also been\u00a0affiliated<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Stanford University<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0its lease of space on the fourth and fifth floors of the Da Vinci office building in late 2023.<\/p>\n Next door to the Da Vinci complex, the Kannarit towers were built by the major Israeli construction company Danya Cebus, which\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the work was carried out as part of a joint venture with another firm known as Solel Boneh. The controlling stake of Soleh Boneh\u2019s parent company, Shikun & Binui, was\u00a0passed<\/a>\u00a0from Shari Arison, formerly Israel\u2019s\u00a0richest woman<\/a>, to the Los Angeles-based real estate developer Netanal H. \u201cNaty\u201d Saidoff in mid-2018.<\/p>\n Saidoff has overseen several Israeli government-affiliated nonprofits in the Los Angeles area, including by chairing the Likud-oriented Israeli-American Council (IAC) and underwriting the legal program of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel training group. Saidoff\u2019s fellow board member at Shikun & Binui, Sagi Balasha, was the first CEO of both the IAC and the Israeli government-funded propaganda initiative, Concert\/Voices of Israel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The headquarters of the suggestively-named cybersecurity company Perimeter 81 \u2013 now part of the publicly traded Check Point Technologies \u2013 is also\u00a0located<\/a>\u00a0roughly 40 meters to the west of the apparent location of Site 81. Check Point is in the process of developing a\u00a0new headquarters<\/a>\u00a0in Tel Aviv with\u00a0Israel Canada Group<\/a>, which, along with\u00a0Acro Real Estate<\/a>, purchased the rights for the Da Vinci complex in 2015 from what was previously a Ministry of Defense site for\u00a0NIS 830 million<\/a>\u00a0(roughly $207 million). The current CEO of Check Point, Nadav Zafrir, commanded Unit 8200 circa\u00a02009 to 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n Public US\u00a0contracting records<\/a>\u00a0show that the Plano, Texas-based branch of the German engineering solutions company M+W Group \u2013 now known as Exyte \u2013 began a $7.4 million contract for Site 81 in June 2011, spanning the company\u2019s support for the Army Corps study. The much larger \u2018Phase 2\u2019 of the Site 81 project was subsequently\u00a0awarded<\/a>\u00a0to the controversial Oxford Construction of Pennsylvania for $29.6 million in August 2013, with the contracts being shifted to Oxford Federal after a\u00a0Chapter 7 bankruptcy<\/a>\u00a0in 2017. In 2018, Oxford Construction was slapped with a\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0accusing its owners of racketeering, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation. A final\u00a0$758,461 payment<\/a>\u00a0to Oxford Federal for its \u2018Phase 2\u2019 work on Site 81 was processed on February 26, 2019.<\/p>\n A previously unreported leaked email exchange between ex-NATO commander James Stavridis and former Israeli military Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi appears to confirm the presence of a command and control network operating inside the Site 81 bunker \u2013 smack in the middle of a densely populated civilian area.<\/p>\n \u201cHi Gabi,\u201d Stavridis wrote to Ashkenazi on September 1, 2015. \u201cI am working with an exciting company called Think Logical here in the USA. They build command and control networks, and just won a big contract out at Site 81 with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].\u201d<\/p>\n The Grayzone discovered Ashkenazi\u2019s email in a leaked archive from an apparently Iranian-linked hacktivist group known as Handala, which was\u00a0curated<\/a>\u00a0by the American nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets.<\/p>\n \u201cI am enjoying my new job as Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy here in Boston \u2014 a top school of international relations,\u201d stated the email from Stavridis, which sought Ashkenazi\u2019s assistance in recruiting \u201csomeone to help [Thinklogical] navigate in Israel\u201d as a consultant\u00a0 \u2013 ideally, \u201ca retired IDF 1-star\u201d general.<\/p>\n Following a request for comment from The Gryazone, Stavridis appears to have included his wife and executive assistant in an accidental reply which read, \u201cJust seeing this? Are you sure!? He is ending.\u201d The message was accompanied by a lengthy footer describing Stavridis\u2019 current roles as vice chairman of global affairs of The Carlyle Group and chairman of the board of The Rockefeller Foundation.<\/p>\n Gen. Ashkenazi and Mr. Pajer did not respond to requests for comment. The Israel Defense Forces also neglected to reply to requests emailed to three separate spokesperson addresses.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/army-report-photo.jpg?resize=1024%2C978&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/kirya-landmarks-1.png?resize=1024%2C312&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Geolocating \u2018Site 81\u2019\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/da-vinci.png?resize=1024%2C409&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pipes_side-by-side.png?resize=760%2C290&ssl=1\")
<\/a>The Kirya complex situated among human shields<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Screenshot-from-2025-10-10-16-40-33.png?resize=852%2C553&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thegrayzone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Oa_photo21.jpg?resize=918%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Israeli-American capital finances the towers<\/b><\/h3>\n
Leaked emails highlight Site 81\u2019s use for \u201ccommand and control\u201d<\/h3>\n