An Iranian missile hit the main hospital in southern Israel early Thursday, wounding people and causing “extensive damage,” the medical facility said. Israeli media aired footage of blown-out windows and heavy black smoke.
Separate Iranian strikes hit a high-rise apartment building in Tel Aviv and other sites in central Israel. At least 40 people were wounded, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service.
Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program. Iranian state television said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack.
The seventh day of conflict came a day after Iran’s supreme leader rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them.”
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Here’s the latest:
Iran says attack on Israel targeted a military site
Iran, through its state-run IRNA news agency, claimed it targeted an Israeli military site, not the hospital.
Iran claimed the “blast wave” of the missile struck the hospital.
Egyptian FM pushes for ‘de-escalation’ dialogue on call with European diplomats
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell on Thursday about the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.
In a statement after the call, Abdelatty said that the E3, an informal foreign and security cooperation arrangement between the U.K., Germany and France, is responsible for opening “channels for dialogue and negotiation and utilize all available channels with the Iranian side to reach compromises that contribute to de-escalation.”
Attack on Arak reactor meant to prevent plutonium production, Israel says
Israel’s military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the Israelis said.
Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes. However, it also enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level.
Israel separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz it described as being related to Iran’s nuclear program.
Several countries prepare to evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel
Japan, China and Indonesia said Thursday they were preparing to help evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel as the conflict between the two countries intensified.
Japan said it is dispatching two military aircraft to Djibouti ahead of a possible airlifting of Japanese nationals from Iran. Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said he ordered the dispatch of two C-2 transport aircraft, along with 120 servicemembers, to the Horn of African nation where Japan has a military base. About 280 Japanese are based in Iran and 1,000 others are in Israel.
The Chinese Embassy in Israel, meanwhile, said it will organize group evacuations by bus from Israel starting Friday. A notice posted on the embassy’s WeChat social media account said Chinese citizens would be taken out through the Taba border crossing to Egypt.
And the Indonesian government said it would evacuate its citizens from Iran. Foreign Affairs Minister Sugiono said, “Our citizens are at risk. Over the past two days, Israel’s attacks have grown more intense, not only targeting the military, but also civilians.” About 386 Indonesians, mostly students, are in Iran, primarily in the city of Qom, he said. His ministry, meanwhile, said earlier that about 194 Indonesians are in Israel, the majority of whom are in the southern city of Rafah.
Israel’s main hospital in south sustained direct hit from Iranian missile with ‘extensive damage’
Israel’s main southern hospital sustained a direct hit Thursday from an Iranian missile, with officials reporting “extensive damage” there.
Soroka Medical Center is the main hospital in Israel’s south.
A spokesperson for the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheba said the hospital suffered “extensive damage” in different areas and people were wounded in the attack. The hospital has requested people not come for treatment.
The hospital has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately 1 million residents of Israel’s south, according to the hospital’s website.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639, rights group says
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group said Thursday.
The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel being killed.
Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.
Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people being killed and 1,277 others being wounded.
No US plans to be part of EU-Iran talks — for now
A U.S. official said Wednesday there no plans for U.S. involvement in nuclear talks set between senior European diplomats and Iran in Geneva, although that could change.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic communications, also noted that the Europeans have been wanting to play a role in the negotiations for months but have been held back by the U.S.
That position, the official said, may be changing as the hostilities intensify
— By Matthew Lee in Washington
