Israel threatens Iran's leader as both countries exchange missile strikes

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 Center 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.'
U.S. 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.'
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Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear program, 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.
Missile hits main hospital in southern Israel
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 authorized 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.
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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.'
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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 centers and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is imperfect.
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Haim Bublil, a local police commander, told reporters that several people were lightly wounded in the strike.
Many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and moving patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.
Israel also boasts a fortified, subterranean blood bank that kicked into action after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
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'No radiation danger' after strike on reactor
Israel's military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium.
'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 it described as being related to Iran's nuclear program.
Iranian state TV said there was 'no radiation danger whatsoever' from the attack on the Arak site. An Iranian state television reporter, speaking live in the nearby town of Khondab, said the facility had been evacuated and there was no damage to civilian areas around the reactor.
Israel had warned earlier Thursday morning it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area.
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Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear program
Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes. However, it also enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level.
Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but does not acknowledge having such weapons.
The strikes came a day after Iran's supreme leader rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage to them.' Israel had lifted some restrictions on daily life Wednesday, suggesting the missile threat from Iran on its territory was easing.
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Already, Israel's campaign has targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear scientists.
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Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would travel to Geneva for meetings with his European counterparts on Friday, indicating a new diplomatic initiative might be taking shape. Iran's official IRNA news agency said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the European Union's top diplomat.
Trump has said he wants something 'much bigger' that a ceasefire and has not ruled out the U.S. joining in Israel's campaign. Iran has warned of dire consequences if the U.S. deepens its involvement, without elaborating.
Arak had been redesigned to address nuclear concerns
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of Tehran.
Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.
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Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility over proliferation concerns.
The reactor became a point of contention after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had poured concrete into to render it unusable under the deal.
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Israel, in conducting its strike, signaled it remained concerned the facility could be used to produce plutonium again one day.
'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 Israeli military said in a statement.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.
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Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost 'continuity of knowledge' about Iran's heavy water production — meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran's production and stockpile.

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SHEKARIAN: Canada must confront the tyranny behind the Iran-Israel crisis

HOLON, ISRAEL - JUNE 19: A man looks at the ruins of a building after an Iranian missile strike on June 19, 2025 in Holon, Israel. Iran launched a retaliatory missile strike on Israel starting late on June 13, after a series of Israeli airstrikes earlier in the day targeted Iranian military and nuclear sites, as well as top military officials. Photo by Amir Levy / Getty Images Europe Two embattled strongmen — Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Khamenei — have brought the world dangerously close to a nuclear confrontation. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account This is not just another flare-up in the Middle East. It's a convergence of egos, extremism, and political self-preservation that has hijacked the futures of two nations and risks igniting a global catastrophe. Both men face internal crises. Khamenei presides over a theocratic regime in terminal decline — haunted by economic collapse, human rights atrocities, and public uprisings like the Women, Life, Freedom movement. Netanyahu, once the symbol of Israeli security, is now best known for gutting Israel's democracy from within. His recent push to neutralize the judiciary, documented in investigations like The Bibi Files, was seen by many Israelis as a ploy to avoid his own corruption trial. The result? Massive protests, fractured institutions, and a prime minister willing to wage war as a political survival tactic. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While the headlines say 'Israel vs. Iran,' the truth is more sinister: This is not a war between nations or cultures. It's a war between two corrupt regimes, each led by men who have demonstrated they will risk everything to cling to power — even if it means aligning themselves with the most extreme, bloodthirsty elements of their countries. To feed their egos and preserve their grip on power, they have found no better allies than their own radicals. And the world is watching it unfold like a spectator sport. Canada, however, does not have the luxury of silence. Why Canada? Why Now? Canada is not just a distant bystander to this crisis. It is home to vibrant Iranian and Israeli diasporas. It is a country that claims to champion international law, peace, and democratic values. And in 2025, it holds the rotating presidency of the G7. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This is a moment of extraordinary responsibility. Canada must lead — not because it's easy or popular, but because the alternative is passivity in the face of global collapse. This leadership must happen both at home and on the world stage. At Home: Inform, Protect, Prepare—and Connect First, we must educate our own public. Canadians deserve to know that this war is not the product of religious or cultural differences, but of authoritarianism and political cowardice. Public broadcasters like the CBC should acquire and air investigative content such as The Bibi Files — a documentary premiered at our own TIFF that unpacks Bibi's corruption and systematic dismantling of Israel's democratic institutions. Equally important, we must teach our youth that peace and harmony between Israelis and Iranians is not only possible — but historically rooted and deeply desired by the overwhelming majority of both peoples. From the ancient legacy of Cyrus the Great — revered by Jews as a liberator and protector — to today's multicultural reality in Canada, we have every reason to believe that coexistence is not a dream, but a shared memory waiting to be revived. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Second, we must protect Canadians. Immigration policy must be leveraged first and foremost to serve the needs of Canadians — especially those with loved ones in crisis zones. For Iranian-Canadian families, this means offering expedited visa processing and emergency pathways for relatives trapped in an increasingly volatile environment. But this must be done with vigilance. The Iranian regime has a documented history of targeting dissidents abroad, including here in Canada. Such measures must be accompanied by the highest level of security screening — ensuring that the generosity of our immigration system does not become a backdoor for foreign operatives intent on surveillance, infiltration, or intimidation. Compassion cannot come at the cost of national safety. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Third, we must prepare. The illusion that Canada is safe by geography is long gone. If the war between Netanyahu and Khamenei escalates, the fallout — cyber, economic, or otherwise — won't respect borders. Canada must meet and exceed its NATO commitments, but not by mimicking American militarism. We must invest in smart defense: Cybersecurity, energy grid resilience, and public crisis readiness. And finally, we must connect. Canada's multiculturalism cannot remain a passive virtue — it must become an active strategy. The government should dedicate funding for civil society and diaspora communities to organize joint cultural events—bringing Israelis and Iranians together through food, music, dance, theatre and dialogue. These moments of shared humanity are not luxuries. They are antidotes to extremism — and Canada must lead in making them possible. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Abroad: Stand for Law—Then Make It Better Canada cannot fix the world — but it can refuse to be complicit in its decay. In a time when international law is ignored with impunity, our role is not to retreat into neutrality but to assert a principled and strategic voice. First, we must uphold international law —not because it is perfect, but because it is all we have. The fundamental paradox of international law is that it seeks to bind sovereign states, yet has no authority above them to enforce compliance—participation remains voluntary, and enforcement, political. Still, that is no excuse for moral surrender. Canada must publicly demand that both Israel and Iran submit to international accountability mechanisms— including the rulings of the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, binding UN resolutions, and independent investigations. As a nation built on the rule of law, Canada must extend that principle beyond its borders — by decisively referring international conflicts to legal mechanisms and insisting on their resolution through lawful means. If we believe in a rules-based order, then we must help lead the world back to one. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Second, Canada must lead the shift toward a new legal order — one that closes the gap between law and enforceability. The 20th century gave us the framework of international law. The 21st must give us the tools to make it matter. Law without enforcement is not justice — it's a soundbite. Canada, leveraging its G7 presidency and global reputation as a rule-of-law nation, must work to refine and expand initiatives like the RN2V, and put forward a modernized framework for international law — one grounded in the lessons of the last century and built for the crises of this one. That work must begin by proposing a doctrine to define and confront what we might call crisis-triggered impunity — the calculated abuse of war, terrorism, or existential threat to override legal and constitutional accountability. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This will not be easy. But neither is watching the world burn while issuing statements of 'deep concern.' If we are serious about defending democracy and peace, then the rules must evolve — and Canada must help write them. A Choice Between Silence and Leadership This moment is not about geopolitics. It's about responsibility. It is tempting to retreat to neutrality. To issue vague, AI-generated calls for 'de-escalation.' To stay quiet because the loudest players in the conflict leave us little space to act. But that is the very path that led to BibiAli's war. And if left unchallenged, it is the path that will lead the world into a war no one survives. Canada has a choice. But the time is running out. And history will remember what we did with it. — Siavash Shekarian is an Iranian-Canadian lawyer, engineer, entrepreneur, and public policy advocate. He is the founder of Catalyst Canada, an initiative of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association. Sports Sunshine Girls Canada Relationships Relationships

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