Soroka Medical Center said an Iranian ballistic missile slammed into an old surgery wing at dawn, blowing out windows and sending black smoke billowing over the desert city but causing only light injuries because the ward had been emptied as a precaution.
Police commander Haim Bublil told reporters rescuers were still clearing debris after a fire in the six-story block; Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom put the toll from the hospital and separate strikes near Tel Aviv at about 65 wounded, two seriously.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded the hospital hit “a red line” and vowed: “We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.”
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel since Jerusalem began a campaign of strikes on June 13 aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.
Arak reactor targeted
Israel’s military said its warplanes destroyed the core seal of the Arak reactor, 250 km southwest of Tehran, to stop it ever producing weapons-grade plutonium.
Fighter jets also bombed a support site near Natanz and dozens of air-defense and missile factories overnight.
Iranian state television confirmed the attack but said there was “no radiation danger” because the facility had been evacuated after Israel issued advance warnings.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly urged all sides to avoid hitting nuclear plants.
Arak was redesigned under the 2015 nuclear deal to limit plutonium output, but Western officials fear Iran kept parts that could be re-installed if it quit the pact.
Heavy-water reactors offer Tehran a second route to a bomb alongside its uranium-enrichment program.
Air-raid routine
Iran’s latest barrage underscored gaps in Israel’s multi-tiered air defenses, which have intercepted most incoming fire but not all.
Hospitals nationwide have moved critical patients into converted underground car parks since the first salvo last week.
The fighting has killed at least 24 people in Israel and more than 600 in Iran, according to official tallies on both sides, and forced airlines to suspend most flights over the region.
Western diplomats say any direct U.S. intervention – still under review in Washington – could tip the showdown into regional war.
Deputy Defense Minister Michaeli told public radio Israel would “continue striking nuclear assets wherever they threaten us” while seeking to keep civilian casualties low.
Tehran insists its program is peaceful and has promised retaliation for the attacks.
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Source: CBS, Times of Israel, Associated Press, The Guardian