Israel hits nuke sites, Iran strikes hospital

TEL AVIV/DUBAI: Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital overnight, as the week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an off-ramp.

Following the strike which damaged the Soroka hospital in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran's "tyrants" would pay the "full price".

His Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the "Ayatollah regime".


On Thursday, Katz said that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist", just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

Netanyahu has said that Israel's military attacks could result in the toppling of Iran's leaders, and Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the "existential threat" posed by Tehran.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has kept the world guessing about whether Israel's superpower ally would join it in airstrikes.

Israel said on Thursday it had struck Iran's Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. A military spokesperson initially said it had also hit Bushehr, site of Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant, but a spokesperson later said this was a mistake to have said this. Earlier, Israel said it had hit another nuclear site near Arak overnight, where Iran was building a heavy-water reactor.

Govts scramble to evacuate citizens
Governments around the world are evacuating thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot.

Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Friday targeting Iran's nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran.

With Israel's air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated via neighbouring countries. European countries have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens from Israel.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia said on Tuesday they had taken 181 people home on government planes.

The German government said flights were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday via Jordan, while Poland said the first of its citizens were due to arrive back on Wednesday.