Israel’s defence minister threatened Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday as the week-old air war between the countries escalated.
Israel bombed a heavy-water reactor in its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear programme after Iranian missiles struck a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba and targets elsewhere in the country overnight.
At least 240 people were wounded by the latest barrage of Iranian missiles, Israel’s health ministry said, including 70 in the incident at the Soroka Medical Centre, where smoke rose as emergency teams evacuated patients.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz blamed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the strikes, saying the military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist”.
US officials said this week that president Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Mr Khamenei. Mr Trump later said there were no plans to kill him “at least not for now”.
The air war began seven days ago with a surprise wave of Israeli air strikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists.
A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds.
Mr Trump has been keeping his cards close to his chest over whether he will order US forces to join Israel’s bombing campaign that it says aims to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme and ballistic capabilities.
The White House on Thursday evening said Mr Trump would make a decision in the next two weeks on whether or not the US would join the war.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, citing a message from the president, who had earlier said Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting.
Diplomats on Thursday said Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi has spoken several times with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in an attempt to find a way to end to the war.
According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Mr Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped attacking Iran. They said the talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal given to Iran at the end of May that aims to create a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside of Iran, an offer Tehran has so far rejected.
US and Iranians officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Following the strike which damaged the hospital in Beersheba, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tehran’s “tyrants” would pay the “full price”.
He has said his country’s attacks could result in the toppling of Iran’s leaders and that Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the “existential threat” posed by Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they were targeting Israeli military and intelligence headquarters located near the Beersheba hospital.
An Israeli military official denied there were military targets nearby and said the attack on the hospital was deliberate.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said it had information that the Arak heavy-water research reactor had been hit, but that it did not contain radioactive material.
Israel, which has the most advanced military in the Middle East, has been fighting on several fronts since the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attack triggered the Gaza war.
It has severely weakened Iran’s regional allies, the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hizbullah, and bombed Yemen’s Houthis. – Agencies
