Israel threatens Iran's top leader after missiles damage hospital and
wound dozens
[June 19, 2025]
By SAM MEDNICK, NATALIE MELZER, and JON GAMBRELL
BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — Israel's defense minister overtly threatened
Iran's supreme leader on Thursday after the latest missile barrage from
Iran damaged a major hospital and hit a high-rise and several other
residential buildings near Tel Aviv.
At least 40 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Israel's
Magen David Adom rescue service. Black smoke rose from the Soroka
Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams
evacuated patients. There were no serious injuries in the strike on the
hospital.
In the aftermath of the strikes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz
blamed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said the
military "has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of
its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.”
U.S. officials said this week that President Donald Trump had vetoed an
Israeli plan to kill Khamenei. Trump later said there were no plans to
kill him “at least not for now.”
Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water
reactor, in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear
program, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise
wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and
nuclear scientists.
A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people,
including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300
wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds
of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds.
Missile hits main hospital in southern Israel
Two doctors told The Associated Press that the missile struck almost
immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion
that could be heard from a safe room. They spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The hospital said the main impact was on an old surgery building that
had been evacuated in recent days. After the strike, the medical
facility was closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases,
it said. Soroka has over 1,000 beds and provides services to around 1
million residents of Israel’s south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the strike on the
hospital and vowed a response, saying: “We will exact the full price
from the tyrants in Tehran.”
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most
have been shot down by Israel's multi-tiered air defenses, which detect
incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centers
and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is
imperfect.
Haim Bublil, a local police commander, told reporters that several
people were lightly wounded in the strike.
Many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week,
converting underground parking to hospital floors and moving patients
underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to
move quickly.
Israel also boasts a fortified, subterranean blood bank that kicked into
action after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack ignited the ongoing war in the
Gaza Strip.
‘No radiation danger’ after strike on reactor
Israel’s military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and
its reactor core seal to halt it from being used to produce plutonium.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in
order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear
weapons development,” the military said. Israel separately claimed to
have struck another site around Natanz it described as being related to
Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian state TV said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” from
the attack on the Arak site. An Iranian state television reporter,
speaking live in the nearby town of Khondab, said the facility had been
evacuated and there was no damage to civilian areas around the reactor.
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Personal objects at the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile
strike in an apartment in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19,
2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Israel had warned earlier Thursday morning it would attack the
facility and urged the public to flee the area.
Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear program
Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes.
However, it also enriches uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step
away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran is the only
non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich at that level.
Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but does
not acknowledge having such weapons.
The strikes came a day after Iran’s supreme leader rejected U.S.
calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the
Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them.” Israel had
lifted some restrictions on daily life Wednesday, suggesting the
missile threat from Iran on its territory was easing.
Already, Israel’s campaign has targeted Iran’s enrichment site at
Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in
Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear
scientists.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would travel to
Geneva for meetings with his European counterparts on Friday,
indicating a new diplomatic initiative might be taking shape. Iran’s
official IRNA news agency said the meeting would include foreign
ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the
European Union’s top diplomat.
Trump has said he wants something “much bigger” that a ceasefire and
has not ruled out the U.S. joining in Israel’s campaign. Iran has
warned of dire consequences if the U.S. deepens its involvement,
without elaborating.
Arak had been redesigned to address nuclear concerns
The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest
of Tehran.
Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium
as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That
would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium,
should it choose to pursue the weapon.
Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to
redesign the facility over proliferation concerns.
The reactor became a point of contention after President Donald
Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a
high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran
bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had
poured concrete into to render it unusable under the deal.
Israel, in conducting its strike, signaled it remained concerned the
facility could be used to produce plutonium again one day.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium
production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and
used for nuclear weapons development,” the Israeli military said in
a statement.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear
watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear
sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.
Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it
lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production
-- meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and
stockpile.
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