The Latest: Israel threatens Iran's supreme leader as Iranian strikes wound over 200

Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program. Iranian state television said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever" and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack.

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Here’s the latest:

Israeli official: Iran has launched 450 missiles and 1,000 drones toward Israel so far

The vast majority of the drones have been launched from Iran, but a few have been launched from Iran’s proxies, including Iraq, according to the Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

He added that Israel began its operation in western Iran before moving towards the capital of Tehran and the center. The military is now starting to attack eastern Iran.

The official would not comment on whether or not the Americans are planning to target the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant. “What Americans do or will not do is up to them, we have our plan and are operating according to it,” he said.

Gaza officials say 69 dead in past 24 hours

The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that hospitals had received 69 bodies and 221 wounded people in the last 24 hours.

It said 55,706 Palestinians have been killed and another 130,101 wounded since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, without saying how many were civilians or combatants.

The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. They still hold 53 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.

Israel says it destroyed majority of Iran's ballistic missile launchers

Israel said its airstrikes have destroyed around two-thirds of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, according to an Israeli military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The official said on Thursday that Israel estimates Iran still has over 100 missile launchers remaining active.

“We are hitting all the chain of production, from the military factory all the way to the launcher itself, we’re stopping all of the elements,” the official said. Israel estimates that before Friday, Iran had around 2,000 ballistic missiles.

The official would not comment on Israeli impact on Iran’s nuclear program. "We said we’re going to damage severely the nuclear facilities, but we didn’t say we’re going to destroy it totally,” the official said. “We know our limits.”

At least 8 killed near aid distribution site in Gaza

Health officials in the Gaza Strip say at least eight Palestinians were killed and 60 wounded near an aid distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed humanitarian group.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza, which received the dead and wounded, confirmed the toll.

It appeared to be the latest of near-daily shootings of Palestinians seeking desperately-needed food in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and ongoing military campaign.

Multiple Palestinian witnesses have said Israeli forces routinely fire on the crowds. Local health officials say scores have been killed and hundreds wounded. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it describes as suspects who approached its forces.

Russia warns the U.S. against entering the Israel-Iran conflict

“U.S. military interference would be “an extremely dangerous step with truly unpredictable negative consequences,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing Thursday. .

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn’t want to carry out a U.S. strike on Iran but suggested he stands ready to act if it’s necessary to extinguish Iran’s nuclear program.

China's Xi calls for ceasefire

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on Israel and Iran to implement an immediate ceasefire in their conflict, which he says risks spreading to other countries in the region.

“If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly," Xi said during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

“The parties to the conflict, especially Israel, should cease fire as soon as possible to prevent the situation from escalating in turn and resolutely avoid the spillover of war," he added.

China has sought to maintain warm ties with both the Arab States on the one side and Israel on the other, to little practical effect.

Iran's supreme leader appoints new commander

Iran's supreme leader has appointed Brigadier General Mohammad Karami as the new ground forces commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that controls Iran's ballistic missiles, after Israeli strikes last week killed several high-ranking military officials in Tehran.

Karami is replacing Mohammad Pakpour, who was appointed last week to become the new commander of the Guard following the killing of Hossein Salami.

Iraqi militia threatens to attack US citizens if Iranian leader is targeted

Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iran-backed militias in Iraq, threatened to attack U.S. citizens in the event that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is targeted in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.

“No soldier, diplomat, or even a bearer of your nationality in our region will be safe. All your direct and indirect interests will become legitimate targets for us, as long as we draw breath in this vile world,” the statement said.

Iraqi militias have thus far largely held their fire in the conflict, although three drones launched at the Ain al-Asad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq were reportedly shot down on Friday, after Israel’s began its barrage of strikes on Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack on the base.

French foreign minister: France and Europeans willing to negotiate with Iran

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday that France and Europeans partners are ready to “resume negotiations” with Iran.

The comments come after Iran’s state media said the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet with European counterparts in Geneva on Friday.

Barrot did not confirm the Geneva meeting.

The message from Iranian authorities was “relatively clear: there is a willingness to resume talks, including with the United States, provided that a ceasefire can be reached,” Barrot told a news conference in Paris.

“On our side, there is a willingness to resume negotiations, provided that these negotiations can lead to lasting, substantial steps backward by Iran regarding its nuclear program, its ballistic program and its activities to destabilize the region,” Barrot said.

Patients wheeled out of Israeli hospital hit by missile

Patients were wheeled out of a major Israeli hospital that was hit by the latest Iranian missile barrage as emergency responders assessed the damage to the building.

A missile struck the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba, damaging its surgical ward. The roof of the building was smashed in, and after the building was hit, smoke could still be seen smoldering from the side. Chunks of cement and glass lay scattered on the ground.

Hospital staff said several dozen people were lightly injured, adding that most patients had already been moved to safe spaces.

Emergency responders assessed the damage at the Soroka hospital Thursday after a missile struck the surgical ward.

Staff said it wasn’t clear how secure the building was, or if parts were going to collapse.

Two hospital staff who did not want to named told The AP the strike hit almost immediately after sirens went off and they went into the safe room.

Dust and debris at Iran’s state-run broadcaster after Israeli strike

The broadcaster allowed reporters on Thursday to film the aftermath of an Israeli strike against its building in Tehran this week.

Associated Press journalists saw the dust and debris now filling an Iranian state television studio. Its windows were blown out by the blast. Chairs sat singed.

Israel conducted the strike against the building Monday during a live broadcast there, an hour after it issued a public warning for the wider area of Tehran in which the building is located.

Iranian officials have said three employees of the broadcaster, formally known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, were killed in the attack.

US diplomat warns Hezbollah against supporting Iran

U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said it would be a “very bad mistake” for Lebanon if the Hezbollah militant group intervened to support Iran militarily in its conflict against Israel.

Barrack made the remarks to journalists Thursday after visiting top officials in Lebanon. Iran-backed Hezbollah has condemned Israel’s surprise strikes on Iran that sparked the conflict and endorsed Iran’s missile barrages over Israel, but has stopped short of saying it will take military action.

Israel says Iran's Supreme Leader ‘cannot continue to exist’

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “cannot continue to exist.”

Katz spoke after the latest wave of Iranian missiles struck a hospital and wounded at least 40 people.

“A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of Israel his mission, cannot continue to exist,” Katz said. “The IDF 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."

Putin and Xi condemn Israeli attacks on Iran

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned the Israeli attacks in a phone call on Thursday.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow and Beijing agree that “the current situation and the issues related to the Iranian nuclear program can’t be solved by force." They believe that “a settlement can and must be reached exclusively by political and diplomatic means.”

Putin informed Xi about his calls with the “key players” in the conflict and his readiness to help broker an end to the hostilities, Ushakov said, adding that Xi welcomed Russia’s mediation.

Iran's foreign minister to meet with European counterparts on Friday

Iran’s foreign minister will meet with European counterparts in Geneva as an Israeli airstrike campaign continues to target his country, state media reported Thursday.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency report.

IRNA said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and the European Union’s top diplomat.

Iran warns the US to avoid direct involvement in conflict with Israel

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Thursday warned the U.S. again to avoid getting directly involved in the conflict between the Islamic Republic and Israel, saying in a statement that “direct” role by the Americans would “expand the conflict to the region.”

“We warn the criminal United States: any direct involvement in this war would lead to its expansion across the region and will result in severe and irreparable blows,” the paramilitary guard in a statement carried by Iranian state T.V. The warning echoes recent statements made by other Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and comes as Trump has said he’s not looking for a fight’ with Iran but stands ready to act if necessary.

IAEA confirms Iran's Arak heavy water research reactor was hit in a strike

The Arak reactor was not loaded with nuclear material at the time of the strike, meaning there is no risk to the public of any radioactive contamination.

“It was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA said it had no information on whether the heavy water plant next to the reactor had been hit.

Israel later released black-and-white footage of its strike on the Arak reactor, showing a bomb dropping on its dome and sending up a massive plume of fire and smoke.

UK's Lammy to meet Rubio in Washington for Mideast talks

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy is flying to Washington on Thursday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the crisis in the Middle East.

The trip comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer chaired a meeting of senior ministers, military chiefs and intelligence officials at the government’s crisis committee, known as COBRA, on Wednesday. Discussions included how the U.K. would respond to a potential U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The U.S. may want to use the U.K.-controlled base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in a potential strike on Iran’s underground nuclear facility at Fordo but is not believed to have requested to do so yet.

Britain has continued to urge de-escalation, but has deployed two refueling tankers and 14 Typhoon jets to Cyprus to protect British personnel and interests in the Middle East. The Foreign Office has evacuated family members of British Embassy staff from Israel but not advised U.K. nationals to leave the country.

Israeli police stop media broadcast said to expose location of Iranian missile impacts

The Israeli police said in a statement that it dispatched cars to a facility to prevent “news agencies utilized by Al Jazeera” from transmitting “unauthorized and unlawful content.”

Israeli authorities have repeatedly warned media outlets not to share the location of Iranian missile interceptions and hits, though these have in some cases been disclosed in Israeli and foreign media.

Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of incitement and of endangering troops by disclosing their locations. The network has denied the allegations.

China offers to play a role in restoring peace and stability in Middle East

Guo Jiakun, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, says China is willing to play an intermediary role in helping end the conflict.

"China has maintained communication with Iran, Israel, Egypt, Oman and other parties, calling on all sides to take immediate measures to de-escalate tensions and prevent the region from falling into greater turmoil,” Guo said Thursday at a daily briefing.

“China is willing to continue working with countries in the region and the international community to play a constructive role in restoring peace and stability in the Middle East as soon as possible,” he added.

Many aircraft dispersed from major air base in Middle East used by US military

A major air base in the Middle East used by the U.S. military has seen many of the aircraft typically on its tarmac dispersed this weekend.

The Al Udeid Air Base outside of Doha, Qatar, is the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. Typically, the air base is filled with multiple transport planes, fighter jets and drones.

In a satellite photo taken Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press, the air base’s tarmac had emptied.

The U.S. military has not acknowledged the change. However, it comes after ships off the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base in Bahrain also have dispersed. That’s typically a military strategy to ensure your fighting ships and planes aren’t destroyed in case of an attack.

Al-Sistani warns against a strike on Iran's senior religious or political leadership

Iraq’s top Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, warned on Thursday that a strike on Iran’s senior religious or political leadership could ignite uncontrollable chaos across the region, an apparent reference to threats that Israel or the U.S. might kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a statement, al-Sistani denounced the ongoing Israeli military campaign against Iran. He said that targeting the country’s top leadership would be a “criminal act (that) would shatter regional stability, deepen human suffering, and inflict far-reaching harm on the interests of all nations.”

He called on the international community — particularly Muslim countries — to increase diplomatic pressure, halt the aggression and broker a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

Widely seen as a voice of moderation, al-Sistani represents a school of thought in Shiism opposed to direct rule by clerics, the system in place in Iran, where Khamenei has the final word in all matters.

Patients evacuated from Soroka Medical Center after missile strike

Black smoke rose from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba as emergency teams evacuated patients.

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.

— Sam Mednick in Beersheba, Israel

Iran says attack on Israel targeted a military site

Iran, through its state-run IRNA news agency, claimed it targeted an Israeli military site, not the hospital.

Iran claimed the “blast wave” of the missile struck the hospital.

Egyptian FM pushes for ‘de-escalation’ dialogue on call with European diplomats

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty spoke with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell on Thursday about the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

In a statement after the call, Abdelatty said that the E3, an informal foreign and security cooperation arrangement between the U.K., Germany and France, is responsible for opening “channels for dialogue and negotiation and utilize all available channels with the Iranian side to reach compromises that contribute to de-escalation.”

Attack on Arak reactor meant to prevent plutonium production, Israel says

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 Israelis said.

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 separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz it described as being related to Iran’s nuclear program.

Several countries prepare to evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel

Japan, China, Indonesia and Oman said Thursday they were preparing to help evacuate their citizens from Iran and Israel as the conflict between the two countries intensified.

Japan said it is dispatching two military aircraft to Djibouti ahead of a possible airlifting of Japanese nationals from Iran. Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said he ordered the dispatch of two C-2 transport aircraft, along with 120 servicemembers, to the Horn of African nation where Japan has a military base. About 280 Japanese are based in Iran and 1,000 others are in Israel.

The Chinese Embassy in Israel, meanwhile, said it will organize group evacuations by bus from Israel starting Friday. A notice posted on the embassy’s WeChat social media account said Chinese citizens would be taken out through the Taba border crossing to Egypt.

The Indonesian government said it would evacuate its citizens from Iran. About 386 Indonesians, mostly students, are in Iran, primarily in the city of Qom, he said. His ministry, meanwhile, said earlier that about 194 Indonesians are in Israel, the majority of whom are in the southern city of Rafah.

And Oman said it had evacuated 245 of its citizens and a number of nationals from other countries via the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, along the country’s Persian Gulf coast.

Israel’s main hospital in south sustained direct hit from Iranian missile with ‘extensive damage’

Israel’s main southern hospital sustained a direct hit Thursday from an Iranian missile, with officials reporting “extensive damage” there.

Soroka Medical Center is the main hospital in Israel’s south.

A spokesperson for the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheba said the hospital suffered “extensive damage” in different areas and people were wounded in the attack. The hospital has requested people not come for treatment.

The hospital has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately 1 million residents of Israel’s south, according to the hospital’s website.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639, rights group says

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1,329 others, a human rights group said Thursday.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists offered the figures, which covers the entirety of Iran. It said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 154 security force personnel being killed.

Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the Islamic Republic against a network of sources it has developed in the country.

Iran has not been offering regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update, issued Monday, put the death toll at 224 people being killed and 1,277 others being wounded.

Credit: AP

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