Israel says Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist' after Iran strikes hospital
Israel's defence minister warned that Iran 's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital was hit in an Iranian missile strike on Thursday, spiking tensions in the week-old war.
As President Donald Trump dangled the prospect of US involvement, Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said targeted a military and intelligence base.
Meanwhile Russia, an Iranian ally, told the United States that joining the conflict would be an "extremely dangerous step".
Israel, fearing Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy last week, triggering deadly exchanges.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the hospital strike, while Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Katz told reporters.
"He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."
06:54
The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries that have plunged the region into a new crisis, 20 months into the Gaza war.
Hospital director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured at the Soroka, where an evacuated surgical building was hit leaving smoke billowing.
"Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital," he told journalists at the site.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called attacks on health facilities "appalling", while UN rights chief Volker Turk said civilians were being treated as "collateral damage".
'People are really panicking'
People fleeing the attacks on Iran described frightening scenes and difficult living conditions, including food shortages and limited internet access.
"People are really panicking," a 50-year-old Iranian pharmacist who did not want to be named told AFP at the Kapikoy crossing on the Turkish border.
"Yesterday the internet stopped and two major banks were hacked so people couldn't access their money. And there's not even enough food."
01:33
Khamenei has rejected Trump's demand for an "unconditional surrender", despite the president's claim that Iran wants to negotiate.
Trump has been deliberately vague about joining the conflict. The White House said on Thursday he will decide whether to join Israel's strikes on Iran within the next two weeks as there is still a "substantial" chance of talks to end the conflict.
Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordo, using specially developed bunker-busting bombs.
The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict.
In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that any US military intervention would have "truly unpredictable negative consequences".
Nuclear sites
On Thursday, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
The Israeli military said the Arak site in central Iran had been hit "to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development".
There was a "near-total national internet blackout" in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran's Fars news agency confirming tighter internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week.
An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday.
Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Netanyahu's office said on Monday.
Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.
Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent – far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 deal, but still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.
Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
21 minutes ago
- Euronews
Israel, Iran trade fresh strikes as conflict enters ninth day
The conflict between Israel and Iran has entered its ninth consecutive day, with reports of strikes emerging from both countries overnight. It comes after a meeting between European foreign ministers and their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Geneva on Friday yielded no concrete results, with Araghchi ruling out further talks on Iran's nuclear programme until a ceasefire is agreed. Aragchi arrived in Istanbul early on Saturday for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), according to media reports. Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said that another commander from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had been killed overnight. Euronews brings you rolling coverage and updates throughout the day.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
Vice President JD Vance blames California Democrats for immigration protests and calls Senator Alex Padilla 'Jose'
Vice President JD Vance on Friday, June 20, accused California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also referred to US Senator Alex Padilla, the state's first Latino senator, as "Jose Padilla," a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids . "I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question," Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem's event. "I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn't a theater. And that's all it is. They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 'Look, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,'" Vance added. A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. "He should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots," Oswald said. Vance's visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California. Trump's dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the US's future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city. "Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement," Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices. "What happened here was a tragedy," Vance added. "You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully." Newsom's spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, "The Vice President's claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear." Speaking at City Hall, Bass said Vance was "spewing lies and utter nonsense." She said hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted by the federal government on a "stunt." "How dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace," Bass said. In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to "Jose Padilla," saying the comment was no accident. Jose Padilla also is the name of a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the "dirty bomb" mission. It later emerged through US interrogation of other Al-Qaeda suspects that the "mission" was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case.
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
EU-Iran talks: Door open to dialogue but no concrete breakthroughs yet
That's it from the Euronews team for now as we stop following developments on day eight of the Iran-Israel conflict and close the live blog. Before we sign off, here's a summary of some of the key events from Friday evening. Our journalists will be back with more live coverage from Saturday morning. Day eight summary - The EU's Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas has said that talks with Iran must remain open after discussions in Geneva. - Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said it is important that the US is involved in further talks, while his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, said Iran is prepared to continue discussions. - British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that "we are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States." - In an update to the UN Security Council, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place. - UN Secretary General António Guterres warned the Security Council that any expansion of the Iran-Israel conflict could start a fire that no one can control, saying "We are not drifting toward crisis – we are racing toward it." The British government said it is working with Israeli authorities to provide charter flights to evacuate UK nationals from the country. - The UK, Ireland and Switzerland have all announced the temporary withdrawal of staff from their embassies in the Iranian capital Tehran due to the deteriorating security situation. - Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council that 50 Israeli warplanes planes entered Iraqi airspace, in what he called "violations of international law."
