strike at the heart of

strike at the heart of (third-person singular simple present strikes at the heart of, present participle striking at the heart of, simple past and past participle struck at the heart of)

1. To attack the central or most important part of (something).
   • 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 38:

     Beeching's proposals struck at the heart of the railway industry's ethos and what it meant to be a railway worker.

• “strike at the heart of something”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.