Israel was hit on Thursday by what appears to be the largest wave of attacks since the war with Iran broke out, with a hospital suffering extensive damage.
An Iranian missile unleashed destruction on the sprawling Soroka hospital complex in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva. The National saw shattered glass, water dripping from burst pipes, mangled cars, and fallen cladding at the site.
Medics said some urgent care is still being delivered but cannot say when operations will be back to normal. The Israeli military said search and rescue forces were working in “several locations across the country”.
It came as Israel mounted fresh attacks on Iran on the seventh day of the air war in the Middle East. Hopes rose for a diplomatic way out as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would meet European counterparts in Geneva on Friday.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Araghchi have spoken by phone several times since the air war began, diplomatic sources told Reuters. Mr Araghchi said the hospital attack was unintentional, contrasting it with deliberate Israeli strikes on medical facilities in Gaza.
The National heard the sounds of missile interceptions and impacts for at least 10 minutes in Jerusalem. The fire service said there was a “direct hit” on a residential building in the Tel Aviv area.
The devastation followed a few days of relatively minor Iranian strikes with successful interception rates. Israeli’s Home Front Command had loosened rules for Israeli civilians on public gatherings, education facilities and workplaces.
Less than 24 hours later, the strikes were a sobering reminder for Israelis that war with Iran has costs greater than they are used to. Little known about why this strike was so devastating.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site on Thursday. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also arrived, addressing reporters across rubble-strewn ground.
"This is clearly a war crime. They are deliberately targeting the civilian population," Mr Saar said. "We will continue to hit nuclear objectives. We will continue to hit ballistic missile objectives. And we will not stop for even one minute before we complete the mission”.
The hospital's deputy general manager Roy Kessous said it was decided two days ago to evacuate patients on three wards. All three floors were ruined by the bomb.
Officials at the scene drew attention to the relatively high number of projectiles fired at once, 20, but still significantly below barrages at the beginning of the fighting.
Israeli medics said 32 people were injured, including two seriously, in the barrage. Several of the injured are being treated “at multiple scenes”, the Magen David Adom ambulance service added.
In central Israel, missiles were said to have hit three residential buildings.
Iran said it had caused only "superficial damage" to the hospital, claiming it had aimed at an Israeli intelligence site nearby. Mr Araghchi contrasted the strike with bombings of Gaza's medical facilities during Israel's invasion of the strip.
"It is the Israeli regime and not Iran that initiated all this bloodshed, and it is Israeli war criminals and not Iranians who are targeting hospitals and civilians," he said.
Social media footage showed medics at Soroka Hospital emerging to scenes of major destruction. Videos also showed extensive damage inside the building, where the door is said to have collapsed. Fires are still raging at some of the scenes.
A representative of the hospital said several areas of the building were damaged and people had been wounded in the attack. The hospital has requested that people do not come for treatment.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist", just days after reports that the US vetoed plans to assassinate him.
"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed - he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals," Mr Katz told journalists near Tel Aviv. "Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."
The hospital has more than 1,000 beds and provides services to the about one million residents of Israel’s south, according to its website. The attacks come less than a day after the Israeli military relaxed civilian rules regarding public activities.
In Iran, Israel’s latest attack struck an area near the Arak heavy water reactor on Thursday morning, hours after it told people to leave, the Iranian Student News Agency reported.
The factory has been a source of concern as it could provide Iran with an alternative to enriching uranium, and UN inspectors have little knowledge about its operations. The International Atomic Energy Agency said there were "no radiological effects".
Officials said the plant had been evacuated before the attack and that there was no radiation risk, ISNA added.
An Iranian state television reporter in the nearby town of Khondab said there was no damage done to civilian areas near the reactor.
The seventh day of the war came 24 hours after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected US calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them”.
The Israeli air force also hit an alleged "nuclear weapons development site" near Natanz. Israel walked back from claims it had also hit a functioning nuclear power plant along the Gulf coast.
An Iranian diplomat told Reuters that Bushehr was not hit and Israel waging "psychological warfare" by discussing it. Any attack on the plant, near Arab neighbours and housing Russian technicians, is viewed as risking nuclear disaster.
