Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
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.”
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 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.”
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”.
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.
(FRANCE 24 and AFP)
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