Iran fires cluster bombs at Israel as conflict enters 8th day: Death toll mounts, no diplomatic breakthrough

Iran launched a missile carrying cluster submunitions into central Israel on Thursday, in what Israeli officials say marks the first use of such weapons in the eight-days at war. The Iranian missile reportedly scattered dozens of bomblets over civilian areas to maximise the chance of damage inflicted on the enemy side.
"Today, the Iranian Armed Forces fired a missile that contained cluster submunitions at a densely populated civilian area in Israel," the Israeli embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters.
The attack came amid a fresh wave of missile exchanges between Iran and Israel on Friday. According to Israeli media reports, the missile's warhead detonated at an altitude of around 7 kilometers, releasing approximately 20 submunitions over a radius of 8 kilometers in central Israel. Iranian officials have not commented on the allegations. Follow Israel Iran war live.
Israeli authorities said on Thursday that the body of a woman was recovered from a building hit by an Iranian missile four days earlier, raising Israel's death toll to 25 since the war began, according to AFP.
Iran, meanwhile, has reported at least 224 deaths from Israeli strikes as of Sunday. The killed individuals include top military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians. However, Tehran has not given an updates figure since.
European diplomats convened in Geneva with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday in a last-ditch effort to prevent further escalation. Foreign ministers from France, Germany, the UK, and the EU urged restraint and diplomacy.
British foreign secretary David Lammy emphasised the urgency, saying the coming two weeks represent 'a window... to achieve a diplomatic solution.'
The UN Security Council is also expected to hold a second emergency session on the conflict, following a request from Iran backed by Russia, China, and Pakistan, diplomats confirmed.
Back in Washington, President Donald Trump, said he would decide 'within the next two weeks' whether to back Israeli military action.
'There is still a substantial chance of a negotiated end to this,' Trump was quoted by AFP, as saying. The Wall Street Journal reported that while he has approved strike plans, he is waiting to see whether Iran shows willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile, Russia warned that any American involvement 'would be an extremely dangerous step.' Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq also threatened retaliation.
Satellite imagery on Thursday revealed that several US military aircraft had been relocated from a base in Qatar.
Iran, still reeling from last week's loss of senior officials, has appointed Brigadier General Majid Khadami as the new head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards' intelligence division, the state-run IRNA reported on Thursday.
He replaces Mohammed Kazemi, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike that also claimed the lives of commanders Hassan Mohaghegh and Mohsen Bagheri.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran would pay a 'heavy price' after Iran's missile barrage hit Soroka Hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
The 1000-bed hospital's director Shlomi Codish said 40 people were injured, and the facility was left in flames.
However, Tehran claimed the hospital was not the intended target; instead, it said the nearby military and intelligence base was the primary objective.
This came as the Israeli military announced overnight strikes on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, including an 'inactive nuclear reactor' in Arak and the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. A military spokesperson said the operation aimed to 'prevent the reactor from being restored.'
(With AFP, Reuters, AP inputs)

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