Iran’s early morning hit on Soroka hospital in Beersheba did not cause any serious injuries because all staff and patients were in protected areas, the director, Shlomi Kodesh, said.
But images of shattered wards and stunned medics examining the damage caused outrage in Israel.
Other missiles landed around Tel Aviv, injuring more than 200 people across the country as a whole, four of them seriously.
One hit the base of a skyscraper in Ramat Gan, close to central Tel Aviv and about 200 metres from the city’s diamond exchange.
“It was like an atom bomb. An earthquake,” said Asher Adiv, 69, who lives in a nearby block of flats. His mother was an Iranian Jew from Isfahan and Asher grew up speaking Farsi.
“The Iranian people should make a revolution, and kick out the ayatollahs,” he said.
“We are not just fighting for Israel. We are fighting for the whole world. We ask Trump to go inside and finish the problem.”Trump, who initially distanced himself from the conflict, has increased the US military presence in the region as he weighs up ordering US forces to join attacks on Iran.
The US president was the first subject most Tel Aviv residents wanted to discuss, as they gathered at the police cordon to watch first responders work among the rubble and shattered glass.
Adiv’s wife, Anny, who immigrated from Morocco in 1969, said: “Tell Donald Trump to be beside us. He has to bomb them to finish the nuclear sites.”
Khamenei warned on Wednesday that the US would face “irreparable damage” if it shifted from supporting Israel’s defence to an active role in assaults on its territory.
Iran’s military has moved missiles to prepare for attacks on US assets if it joins the war, and officials are considering other options to respond to one of the most serious threats since the 1979 revolution that brought the country under the control of clerics.
A member of the national security committee in Iran’s parliament, Behnam Saeedi, said Iran could attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported. The narrow passage is used by vessels carrying a fifth of the world’s daily oil needs.
Israeli planes bombed a partly built heavy-water reactor near Arak on Thursday and returned to strike the Natanz nuclear complex.
There was no radiation risk from the strike on the reactor, state TV said. Israeli warnings meant the area had been evacuated.
Heavy-water reactors are considered a proliferation risk because they can produce plutonium, an alternative to enriched uranium for the core of a nuclear weapon. Israel also targeted the Natanz site, which has been hit several times.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. It was censured by the International Atomic Energy Agency just before the war began and is the only state without nuclear weapons that enriches uranium to 60%, one technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Israel, which has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, is the only nuclear-armed power in the region. It has never officially confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons but its status has been an open secret for years.
Several countries are preparing to evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel, while flights to bring back tens of thousands of Israelis stranded outside the country get under way. Israel’s main airport has been closed since the first attacks on Iran.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/19/israel-attacks-irans-arak-heavy-water-reactor-as-iran-hits-israeli-hospital
