Israel threatens Iran’s top leader after missiles damage hospital
Beersheba: Israel’s defence minister overtly threatened Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday after the latest missile barrage from Iran damaged a major hospital and hit a high-rise and several other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.
At least 40 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service. Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Centre in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients. There were no serious injuries in the strike on the hospital.
In the aftermath of the strikes, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz blamed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said 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 Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to kill him “at least not for now.”
Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on the country’s sprawling nuclear programme, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes 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.
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 authorised to brief media.
The hospital said the main impact was on an old surgery building that had been evacuated in recent days.
After the strike, the medical facility was closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases, it said.
Soroka has over 1,000 beds and provides services to around 1 million residents of Israel’s south. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the strike on the hospital and vowed a response, saying: “We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.”
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel’s multi-tiered air defences, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centres and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is
imperfect.
