The Latest: Dozens wounded in Iranian strikes across Israel, as Israel hits Arak reactor site
An Iranian missile hit the main hospital in southern Israel early Thursday, wounding people and causing “extensive damage” but no serious injuries, the medical facility said. Israeli media aired footage of blown-out windows and heavy black smoke.
Other missiles 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:
Israel says Iran’s Supreme Leader ‘cannot continue to exist’
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “cannot continue to exist.”
Katz spoke after the latest wave of Iranian missiles struck a hospital and wounded at least 40 people.
“A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of Israel his mission, cannot continue to exist,” Katz said. “The IDF has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.”
U.S. officials said this week that President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him “at least not for now.”
Putin and Xi condemn Israeli attacks on Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned the Israeli attacks in a phone call on Thursday.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow and Beijing agree that “the current situation and the issues related to the Iranian nuclear program can’t be solved by force.” They believe that “a settlement can and must be reached exclusively by political and diplomatic means.”
Putin informed Xi about his calls with the “key players” in the conflict and his readiness to help broker an end to the hostilities, Ushakov said, adding that Xi welcomed Russia’s mediation.
Iran’s foreign minister to meet with European counterparts on Friday
Iran’s foreign minister will meet with European counterparts in Geneva as an Israeli airstrike campaign continues to target his country, state media reported Thursday.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency report.
IRNA said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and the European Union’s top diplomat.
Iran warns the US to avoid direct involvement in conflict with Israel
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Thursday warned the U.S. again to avoid getting directly involved in the conflict between the Islamic Republic and Israel, saying in a statement that “direct” role by the Americans would “expand the conflict to the region.”
“We warn the criminal United States: any direct involvement in this war would lead to its expansion across the region and will result in severe and irreparable blows,” the paramilitary guard in a statement carried by Iranian state T.V. The warning echoes recent statements made by other Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and comes as Trump has said he’s not looking for a fight’ with Iran but stands ready to act if necessary.
IAEA confirms Iran’s Arak heavy water research reactor was hit in a strike
The Arak reactor was not loaded with nuclear material at the time of the strike, meaning there is no risk to the public of any radioactive contamination.
“It was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
The IAEA said it had no information on whether the heavy water plant next to the reactor had been hit.
Israel later released black-and-white footage of its strike on the Arak reactor, showing a bomb dropping on its dome and sending up a massive plume of fire and smoke.
UK’s Lammy to meet Rubio in Washington for Mideast talks
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy is flying to Washington on Thursday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the crisis in the Middle East.
The trip comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of senior ministers, military chiefs and intelligence officials at the government’s crisis committee, known as COBRA, on Wednesday. Discussions included how the U.K. would respond to a potential U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
The U.S. may want to use the U.K.-controlled base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in a potential strike on Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordo but is not believed to have requested to do so yet.
Britain has continued to urge de-escalation, but has deployed two refueling tankers and 14 Typhoon jets to Cyprus to protect British personnel and interests in the Middle East. The Foreign Office has evacuated family members of British Embassy staff from Israel but not advised U.K. nationals to leave the country.
Israeli police stop media broadcast said to expose location of Iranian missile impacts
The Israeli police said in a statement that it dispatched cars to a facility to prevent “news agencies utilized by Al Jazeera” from transmitting “unauthorized and unlawful content.”
Israeli authorities have repeatedly warned media outlets not to share the location of Iranian missile interceptions and hits, though these have in some cases been disclosed in Israeli and foreign media.
Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of incitement and of endangering troops by disclosing their locations. The network has denied the allegations.
China offers to play a role in restoring peace and stability in Middle East
Guo Jiakun, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, says China is willing to play an intermediary role in helping end the conflict.
“China has maintained communication with Iran, Israel, Egypt, Oman and other parties, calling on all sides to take immediate measures to de-escalate tensions and prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil,” Guo said Thursday at a daily briefing.
“China is willing to continue working with countries in the region and the international community to play a constructive role in restoring peace and stability in the Middle East as soon as possible,” he added.
Many aircraft dispersed from major air base in Middle East used by US military
A major air base in the Middle East used by the U.S. military has seen many of the aircraft typically on its tarmac dispersed this weekend.
The Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar, is the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. Typically, the air base is filled with multiple transport planes, fighter jets and drones.
In a satellite photo taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press, the air base’s tarmac had emptied.
The U.S. military has not acknowledged the change. However, it comes after ships off the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also have dispersed. That’s typically a military strategy to ensure your fighting ships and planes aren’t destroyed in case of an attack.
Al-Sistani warns against a strike on Iran’s senior religious or political leadership
Iraq’s top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned on Thursday that a strike on Iran’s senior religious or political leadership could ignite uncontrollable chaos across the region, an apparent reference to threats that Israel or the U.S. might kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a statement, al-Sistani denounced the ongoing Israeli military campaign against Iran. He said that targeting the country’s top leadership would be a “criminal act (that) would shatter regional stability, deepen human suffering, and inflict far-reaching harm on the interests of all nations.”
He called on the international community — particularly Muslim countries — to increase diplomatic pressure, halt the aggression and broker a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.
Widely seen as a voice of moderation, al-Sistani represents a school of thought in Shiism opposed to direct rule by clerics, the system in place in Iran, where Khamenei has the final word in all matters.
China urges de-escalation of conflict especially by Israel
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Beijing was “deeply concerned” about the conflict between Iran and Israel and called for both sides to de-escalate.
“China strongly urges the parties involved, especially Israel, to prioritize the interests of regional peoples and cease fire and hostilities immediately to ease current tensions,” said Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
Guo added that the conflict was “escalating, causing tremendous harm to the peoples of both countries and seriously undermining regional and global peace and stability. China is deeply concerned about this. There are no winners in an escalating conflict. It will only lead to greater destruction and deeper turmoil.”
Patients evacuated from Soroka Medical Center after missile strike
Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients.
Two doctors told The Associated Press that the missile struck almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion that could be heard from a safe room. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
— Sam Mednick in Beersheba, Israel
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, Indonesia and Oman 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.
The Indonesian government said it would evacuate its citizens from Iran. 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.
And Oman said it had evacuated 245 of its citizens and a number of nationals from other countries via the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, along the country’s Persian Gulf coast. Ten buses also brought Omani citizens from the Iran’s north into Turkey, and three other buses crossed into Iraq, Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
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