Israel's defense minister on Thursday issued a direct threat to Iran's supreme leader following an Iranian missile barrage that damaged a southern Israeli hospital and homes near Tel Aviv, as Israel responded with a strike on Iran's Arak heavy water nuclear reactor.
At least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missiles, four of them seriously, according to Israel's Health Ministry. The vast majority were lightly wounded, including more than 70 people from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba, where smoke rose as emergency teams evacuated patients.
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 carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear program. The conflict began last Friday with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists.
