Israel’s defense minister on Thursday made a direct threat to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei following an Iranian missile strike that hit an Israeli hospital.
“These are war crimes of the most serious kind—and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes,” he said. “The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to the State of Israel and undermine the ayatollahs’ regime.”
The Iranian strike on Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba on Thursday morning came amid an aerial war between the two countries. Israel has killed many top Iranian military officials in airstrikes and has also been launching airstrikes to degrade the country’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programs, alleging Iran has been enriching uranium to make multiple nuclear weapons.
At least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missiles, four of them seriously, according to Israel’s Health Ministry. More than 70 people who were inside the Soroka hospital were injured, officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and vowed a response, saying: “We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.”
Earlier in the week, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Khamenei that intelligence shows where Khamenei is located and that either Israel or the United States could kill him in an airstrike. He called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” which Iran and Khamenei have rebuked through state-run media and social media posts.
Israel on Thursday carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on the country’s sprawling nuclear program. Fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal in order to prevent it from being used to produce plutonium, according to the military.
The reactor was not online, had no uranium fuel, and saw no nuclear release from the strike.
“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 military said.
Israel separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz that it described as being related to Iran’s nuclear program.
Since late last week, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel’s multi-tiered air defenses, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centers and critical infrastructure.
In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said that he has not yet decided whether the United States could get involved in the conflict and issue a direct strike targeting Iran. He also said that Iran should have reached out to negotiate weeks ago.
“They want to negotiate. I ask: Why didn’t they negotiate two weeks ago? They could have done fine. It is very sad to watch this. I told them to negotiate, and last minute, they said no, and they got hit,” Trump told reporters.
But he stressed that regarding a deal, “nothing is too late” when it comes to diplomacy with Iran.
“They even suggested they would come to the White House. That is courageous and not easy for them to do,” he added.
