Smokes rises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be’er Sheva, Israel on Thursday. Leo Correa/AP hide caption
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Leo Correa/AP
President Trump will make a decision on whether the U.S. will strike Iran “within two weeks,” the White House said Thursday.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Trump said in a statement read by Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman.
The statement tamps down on speculation that the U.S. was poised to strike an Iranian nuclear facility as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies.
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According to a statement from Soroka Medical Center, the largest hospital in southern Israel, several people were being treated for minor injuries and cases of shock after the hospital was struck by Iranian missiles. The strike caused extensive damage to the hospital’s old surgical wing, which was preemptively evacuated several days ago, according to the statement. Videos shared online showed shattered hospital rooms and black smoke pouring from the facility.
Iran’s state media claimed that the missile was aimed at a military target nearby and denied intentionally hitting the hospital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retribution for the attack.
“This morning, Iran’s terrorist tyrants launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in the center of the country,” he said on social media. “We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the strike a “war crime,” and said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “cannot continue to exist.”
Other missiles hit a high-rise building and other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.
Katz said he and Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to intensify its strikes on strategic and government targets in Tehran, as part of a broader effort to undermine Iran’s regime.
The Israeli military says more than 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones have been launched at Israeli territory since the conflict began Friday.
Israel’s emergency services, Magen David Adom, said three people were in serious condition from Thursday’s blasts, including an elderly man and two women. An additional 42 civilians were wounded by shrapnel or blasts, and 18 more were hurt while running to shelters.
Israel’s strikes on Iran, meanwhile, have killed more than 200 people, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. But an independent group called the Human Rights Activists News Agency says it has counted 639 dead in Iran based on nongovernmental sources.
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Israel also continued its strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it struck the Arak heavy water reactor. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site — which it called the “Khondab (former Arak) heavy water research reactor” — was “not operational and contained no nuclear material,” so there was no risk of “radiological effects.”
It was the latest move targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure since Israel launched its surprise attack seven days ago.
In Washington on Thursday, Leavitt said the U.S. government believes “Iran has never been closer to a nuclear weapon.”
Trump has stopped short of saying whether the U.S. would join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear sites.
“We’re the only ones that have the capability to do it — but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it,” he said Wednesday.
“I have ideas as to what to do. I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due because things change, especially with war,” he said. Earlier in the week he demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Khamenei warned Wednesday that any U.S. military intervention would bring “irreversible consequences.” In a nationally broadcast address, the Iranian leader said the nation would not surrender, and would resist an “imposed war” just as it would resist an “imposed peace.”
Speaking Thursday, Netanyahu said the United States is “participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities with THAAD missile batteries that are in Israel, with Aegis ships that are on the shore of Israel, with their pilots that are fighting alongside our pilots to knock out drones.”
In an interview with NPR that day, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said the country would welcome interventions from “nations” — without naming the U.S. — and “anything that helps eradicate the Iranian nuclear program completely.”
As the fighting and rhetoric seemed to escalate, some countries are calling for restraint. Foreign ministers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom are scheduled to meet their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday.
The three European countries played a role in negotiations over a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. President Trump said the deal was too favorable to Iran and pulled the United States out during his first term.
“All sides must show restraint, refrain from taking steps which lead to further escalation in the region, and return to diplomacy,” the European countries said in a joint statement.
NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Daniel Estrin, and Itay Stern contributed to this report from Tel Aviv.
