Kathmandu. President Donald Trump left the world wondering if the United States will assist Israel in airstrikes aimed at destroying Tehran’s nuclear facilities on Thursday when Israel hit a critical Iranian nuclear complex and Iranian missiles struck an Israeli hospital.
Iranian retaliation strikes have killed at least two dozen Israeli civilians, while Israeli air and missile strikes against its main competitor have destroyed the upper echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities, and killed hundreds of people.
The Israeli military says it attacked the Khondab nuclear plant, which includes its partially constructed heavy-water research reactor, in Arak, Iran, overnight. Because heavy-water reactors can readily manufacture plutonium, which may be used to create the core of an atom bomb much like enriched uranium, they provide a risk of nuclear proliferation.
Two rockets were reported by Iranian media to have struck a nearby region of the facility, which had been evacuated; no radiation dangers were mentioned.
The Israeli military also claimed to have hit a location near Natanz that houses parts and specialized machinery intended to further the manufacture of nuclear bombs.
According to an Israeli military official, a number of Iranian missiles hit inhabited areas in Israel on Thursday morning, including a hospital in the southern region of the nation.
Explosions could be heard as incoming projectiles were intercepted, and missile trails and interception efforts were visible in the skies over Tel Aviv. Direct impacts in central Israel were also reported by Israeli media.
According to emergency services, dozens of individuals were hurt in three different sites, and five people were critically hurt in the attacks. They stated that people were still confined to a building in a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv.
Only a few hundred meters from the Tel Aviv strike are about a dozen embassies and diplomatic missions, the majority of which are in Europe and Africa.
Images showed rescue personnel assisting civilians, including children, in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, where buildings were severely damaged. The southern Israeli city of Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center said it had been damaged.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard claimed to be targeting Israeli intelligence and military facilities close to the hospital.
The two regional giants are engaged in the deadliest conflict in history, which has sparked concerns that it will attract global forces and further destabilize the Middle East.
Trump refused to comment on whether he had decided whether to join Israel’s air campaign when he spoke to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday. “I might do it. Maybe I won’t. No one can predict what I’m going to do,” he remarked.
Later, Trump stated that Iranian officials were interested in meeting in Washington. “We may do that,” he added, adding that “it’s a little late” for these kinds of discussions.
In his first broadcast appearance since Friday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s earlier demand for Iran’s capitulation in a recorded speech.
“Any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,” he stated. “The Iranian nation will not surrender.”
Iran claims that its program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies that it is pursuing nuclear weapons. For the first time in two decades, Tehran violated its non-proliferation commitments, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency this week.
According to a German diplomatic source who spoke to Reuters, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain will meet with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva to discuss nuclear issues and pressure Iran to resume talks.
The only Middle Eastern nation thought to possess nuclear weapons is Israel, which is not a signatory to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel neither confirms nor denies that.
Trump has changed his stance from calling for an immediate diplomatic conclusion to the conflict to implying that the US might join it.
Trump and his team were weighing options, including supporting Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, according to a source familiar with internal discussions.
However, some of Trump’s followers are pushing him not to entangle the United States in another Middle East conflict, exposing rifts in the coalition of supporters that propelled him to power.
Trump’s position has shifted from advocating for a swift diplomatic resolution to suggesting that the US may enter the battle.
According to a person familiar with internal deliberations, Trump and his advisors were considering their options, including backing Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
But some of Trump’s supporters are pressuring him to avoid drawing the US into yet another Middle East war, revealing divisions among the group of backers that helped him win the presidency.
When asked on Thursday how he would respond if Israel were to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader with US help, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded, “I do not even want to discuss this possibility.” I’d prefer not to.
According to Putin, all parties should try to find a solution to the conflict that would protect Israel’s right to the unrestricted security of the Jewish state as well as Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear power.
According to Israeli authorities, Iran has fired almost 400 missiles into Israel since Friday, 40 of which have penetrated air defenses and killed 24 people, all of whom were civilians.
Iranian missile salvoes are the first time in decades of proxy war and shadow war that a sizable portion of Iran’s missiles have breached defenses and killed Israelis in their homes.
Iran claims that Israeli attacks have killed at least 224 people, primarily civilians, but it hasn’t updated that number in days.
As of June 18, 639 individuals had been killed and 1,329 injured in the Israeli attacks, according to the U.S.-based Iranian activist news agency HRANA. Reuters was unable to confirm the report on its own.