The missile attack, Tehran’s latest on civilian areas, wounded dozens
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “can no longer be permitted to exist,” Israeli defense minister Israel Katz declared Thursday morning after an Iranian missile struck a hospital, wounding dozens.
“Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed—he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal,” Katz told reporters shortly after Iran hit the Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. “Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”
At least 42 Israelis were wounded when Iran fired more than 30 ballistic missiles at civilian areas across Israel, injuring more than 40 people, at least six of whom were “seriously hurt,” according to the Times of Israel. The attack critically injured an 80-year-old man and two women in their 70s,, while another “18 people were lightly injured as they scrambled to bomb shelters when sirens went off.”
The Soroka Medical Center, which serves as the main hospital in Israel’s southern region, sustained severe damage during the attack. The hospital evacuated several parts of its facility in recent days, likely saving lives.
“There is widespread damage to other buildings at the hospital. All patients and all staff were in shelters. The several injured we have are lightly hurt, mostly from the blast shockwave,” Shlomi Kodesh, the hospital’s director general, told reporters. “A missile hit the old surgical ward building at Soroka. It’s a relatively old building that had been evacuated in recent days.”
Israel, unlike Iranian proxy Hamas, builds bomb shelters for civilians and does not place its military command centers underneath hospitals.
IDF spokesman Effie Defrin said on Thursday morning that the attack on Soroka Hospital—which serves over one million Israelis of different religions and ethnicities—is in line with Iran’s disregard for civilian casualties.
“Iran targeting civilian centers with ballistic missiles is no surprise for us,” Defrin said.
Iran reportedly claimed it had tried to strike an Israeli intelligence outpost located near the hospital, though it has indiscriminately fired on many densely populated civilian areas since war broke out last week. Iran has launched more than 450 ballistic missiles and hundreds of attack drones during the past six days, according to the IDF.
Israel, meanwhile, continued its assault on Iranian nuclear facilities through Thursday morning, destroying portions of the Arak heavy water reactor.
More than 40 fighter jets “struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and additional areas throughout Iran, using over 100 munitions,” according to the IDF. “The nuclear reactor in the area of Arak in Iran was targeted, including the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.”
The Islamic Republic constructed the site “for the production of weapons-grade plutonium, capable of enabling the development of nuclear weapons,” the IDF said. The strike successfully destroyed Arak’s plutonium production components, preventing the reactor “from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development.”
Heavy water facilities like Arak provide a plutonium-based path to a nuclear weapon, offering Tehran a second option in addition to its enrichment of uranium. Iran began building the site in 1997, but international pressure prevented it from finishing the project.
A separate operation early on Thursday hit near Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, also suspected of housing the country’s nuclear weapons program.
The IDF described the plant as a “nuclear weapons development site” and said it “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development, and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.”
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