Israel has justified its attacks by saying Iran was reaching the “point of no return” in its nuclear programme, and that it was close to developing a nuclear weapon, although it has provided no evidence of that.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian, peaceful purposes, and the recent assessment of US officials was that Iran had not made a decision to weaponise its nuclear programme – although it is not clear whether it had plans to do so.
The attacks this morning come at a critical time, as President Trump considers the possibility of direct American involvement in Israel’s campaign.
The strikes will probably be used by Israeli officials and those in favour of military action to put pressure on Trump to act.
The Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has rejected Trump’s calls to surrender, and Iran has threatened to strike American military interests in the Middle East in response.
Its proxies in Iraq and Yemen could attack too, leading to even more violence.
Efforts to de-escalate the conflict have so far been unsuccessful, with Israel indicating this campaign will continue.
After days of very limited impact with its attacks, Iran has managed to inflict significant damage in Israel, as missiles penetrated the country’s air defences, hitting several locations.
The intensity of the recent barrages had diminished, which was an indication of the damage from Israel’s air strikes on the Iranian military.
Reflecting that, the Israeli government had announced the easing of some of the restrictions that had been imposed because of the war.
This morning’s attacks, however, show that Iran still has the ability to fire missiles and cause harm. The locations hit include the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba, Holon, where a missile landed between buildings, and Ramat Gan, both in the Tel Aviv area.
Iran said the target in Beersheba was what it said was a military target near the hospital but Sharren Haskel, the Israeli deputy foreign affairs minister, accused Iran of deliberately targeting Soroka. It is not clear what were the possible targets in the other cities hit.
Iran has been responding to almost a week of Israel’s air strikes on military and nuclear sites, energy facilities, airports, government buildings and also residential areas.
Iran says this is a war of aggression, and that it has the right to defend itself.
We’ve had another update from Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom.
They say a total of 65 people are now being treated for injuries after recent Iranian strikes across the country.
This includes a man in his 80s and two women in their 70s who are in “serious condition”, two women in their 80s in “moderate condition”, 42 people in “mild condition” and 18 people who were hurt while on their way to bomb shelters.
The service says more updates are on the way.
The main target of this morning’s missile strike was a military site next to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, not the hospital itself, Iranian state media says.
According to the IRNA news agency, the attack was aimed at an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) “command and intelligence (IDF C4i) headquarters” and an army intelligence camp in the Gav-Yam Technology Park.
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“The hospital was only exposed to the blast wave and did not suffer serious damage, but military infrastructure was a precise and direct target,” the report adds.
The Gav-Yam Negev advanced technologies park’s website says it is “adjacent to the Ben Gurion University campus and the IDF C4i Branch campus”. Israeli media has also previously reported that an IDF campus is being built on this site.
