Explosions heard in Tehran. Iranian state media also report that the air defense system is dealing with “hostile targets” in northern Tehran.
People gather in Ahwaz, a city in western Iran, for the funeral of Iranians killed in the Israeli attacks.
Netanyahu says the change or fall of the Iranian regime is not a goal of the Israeli operation, but it may be a result.
“The issue of regime change or the fall of this regime is primarily a matter for the Iranian people. Therefore, I have not presented it as a goal. It could be a result.”
According to diplomatic sources, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has spoken several times with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.
Aragchi is said to have stated that Iran can be “flexible” when it comes to the country’s nuclear program if the US gets Israel to stop the attacks. Iran would return to the negotiating table if the Israeli attacks stopped.
US President Donald Trump has pleaded for a diplomatic deal on the issue and wants Iran to not enrich any uranium at all. This is unacceptable to the Iranian regime for the time being.
Almost all of Iran has been without internet for a day, according to the independent internet watchdog Netblocks. According to Netblocks, this is the most serious disruption to the internet since 2019, when the connection went down for many Iranians during violent protests against the Iranian government.
The Iranian Ministry of Communications announced on Wednesday evening that it was restricting the internet because Israel was using it for military purposes.
Sirens have gone off in various places in Israel. According to the Israeli army, Iran has again fired rockets at Israel.
One of the twenty ballistic missiles that Iran fired at Israel today had a ‘cluster rocket head’, reports The Times of Israel, based on the Israeli defense branch Home Front Command.
When such rocket heads come down, they fall apart and spread smaller pieces of ammunition.
The Israeli army reports that it has attacked various launch platforms in western Iran. These are places where rockets are fired. The army is said to have learned that Iran was attempting to restore these after earlier Israeli attacks. That is why the army attacked the platforms again.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a short security meeting tonight at 9:00 PM (Dutch time), Israeli media report. The meeting is scheduled after the Iranian attack this morning, in which more than a hundred people were injured.
This photo shows the damage to the outside of the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva.
Israel Katz believes that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei must die. Katz called Khamenei “the modern Hitler” during a visit to the site of an Iranian rocket impact in Holon, near Tel Aviv. That reports Times of Israel just now.
The Israeli Minister of Defense added that the Ayatollah “can no longer continue to exist”, indirectly expressing the intention that Israel wants to kill the highest Iranian leader. According to Katz, Khamenei personally orders the shelling of hospitals and residential buildings, with the ultimate goal of destroying Israel.
Iran has mentioned closing the Strait of Hormuz as a possible response to all “foreign aggression”, a member of the National Security Committee tells state medium Mehr. This also makes the Persian Gulf inaccessible to shipping: the Strait of Hormuz is the only way ships can reach the Persian Gulf.
In addition to Iran, Bahrain also borders the Persian Gulf, and there is an important US naval base there. It therefore seems unlikely that the Americans will simply accept such a closure. In addition, a closure has an effect on the oil trade. Every day, 20 percent of global oil production is shipped from the Gulf States to the rest of the world via the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses the IAEA of bias and thus “a role in this unjust war”. A spokesperson for the ministry cites a CNN interview with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on X. In it, Grossi says that “there is no evidence that Iran is systematically working on a nuclear weapon”. According to Iran, that statement comes too late.
Last week, the IAEA issued a report criticizing Iran for not meeting its nuclear obligations. That was the first time in almost twenty years. Shortly after that report, Israel began attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Israel attacked because Iran was said to be threatening to make nuclear weapons.
“Misleading reports have serious consequences, Mr. Grossi,” writes the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Iran says that the attack that damaged an Israeli hospital was aimed at command and intelligence centers of the Israeli armed forces in the area. The hospital was “only exposed to the shock wave”, reports state news agency IRNA.
Israel says that multiple rockets hit the hospital. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of an “attack on the civilian population”, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called it a “war crime”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will meet with British, French and German officials in Geneva on Friday, Iranian state television reports. A top diplomat from the European Union will also be present. The three countries have invited Iran to do so.
International media already wrote on Wednesday, based on diplomatic sources, that the three countries had invited Iran to do so. The European countries want to negotiate an end to the conflict with Israel. In doing so, the EU countries presumably want to agree more specifically that Iran may not use its nuclear program for nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirms that the Arak heavy water reactor was hit in an Israeli missile attack. The IAEA has not observed any “radioactive effects” after the attack. “The nuclear reactor was not in operation and no nuclear materials were present,” the IAEA reports on X.
The space used by the Dutch embassy in the building was not hit by the rocket impact. At least one window of the building has broken, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told press agency ANP.
The building of the Dutch embassy in Tel Aviv was slightly damaged on Thursday morning by an Iranian rocket. The staff is unharmed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.
The city of Ramat Gan, which was hit by an Iranian missile attack this morning, houses many international embassies. A tower with multiple embassies is located a few hundred meters from a building where an impact has occurred.
These include the embassies of Austria, Lithuania and Kenya. They report that their building has not been damaged and that the staff is safe. The Dutch embassy is located in the building next to that tower.
The Home Front Command, an app that Israelis use to be warned of air attacks, among other things, was just out of service. It is unclear how long the app was out of service. According to the IDF, there was no threat at the time the app was out of service. It would be a malfunction. The army is investigating the incident.
The Home Front Command gives a signal about ten minutes before the air raid siren goes off. That signal is sent when launched rockets are registered in Iran. It is an initial sign that people must seek out shelters.
Destroyed homes in the city of Holon, located in the center of Israel. Holon was one of the cities hit by an Iranian missile attack this morning. Dozens of people have been injured throughout the country.
Israel will intensify attacks on military targets and government institutions in Iran, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz reports on X. The intensification is intended to remove the threat to Israel and “undermine the ayatollah’s regime.”
Iran confirms that it will continue to attack Israel. “We will continue the attacks on every target of the Zionist aggressor,” reported a senior Iranian military official.
All employees and patients of the Soroka hospital were in shelters on time, reports the hospital director. The building was evacuated as a precaution in recent days. Other buildings of the hospital have been considerably damaged, the director says. A few people were slightly injured, mostly by the impact of the impact.
Smoke curls up after the missile impact in the Soroka hospital in Be’er Sheva. A spokesperson spoke of multiple injuries and significant damage.
More than forty people have been injured after an Iranian missile attack, reports the Israeli emergency aid organization Magen David Adom on X. Three of them are in poor condition. The victims were injured by an explosion and flying shrapnel, among other things.
Israel attacked the Arak heavy water reactor this morning. Iranian state television reports that there is no radiation hazard. A heavy water reactor is used to obtain plutonium. With that you can make an atomic bomb.
Israel also claims to have hit a factory in Natanz where nuclear weapons are being developed, according to Israel.
US President Donald Trump approved an attack plan for Iran on Tuesday evening, a major intelligence source and an employee of the US Department of Defense told CBS News.
Trump is said to be waiting with the attack because he wants to give Iran the chance to stop its nuclear program, the sources say.
People were injured in the hospital, but ‘many lives were spared’. People were injured in the hospital during the missile impact. It is unclear how many and how serious. The floor where the rocket hit was evacuated yesterday due to the conflict, reports the Israeli emergency aid organization Magen David Adom.
A spokesperson for the affected hospital in Be’er Sheva reports that there is a lot of damage to the building.
Iranian rockets that were en route to Israel on Thursday morning. The photo was taken from Hebron, a city on the occupied West Bank.
Rescuers are on the scene at an affected building in Ramat Gan.
About twenty people were slightly injured in a rocket impact in the Israeli city of Holon. One person is in poor condition. There are also reports of “considerable damage” in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, reports Times of Israel.
Iranian rockets hit homes and hospitals in Israel on Thursday morning. It is not yet known whether there are any casualties and how great the damage is.
Iran has been cut off from the internet for more than twelve hours, NetBlocks reports. Earlier, the internet watchdog described the situation as a “virtually total national blackout.”
Iran shut down internet access for the population on Thursday to prevent “the enemy from endangering the lives and property of citizens.” NetBlocks identified a large-scale internet outage on Wednesday.
The Israeli army says on Thursday that it is carrying out a “series of attacks” around Tehran and other parts of Iran. According to the army, these are retaliatory attacks after a “suspicious air object” was intercepted from Iran. Iran fired rockets shortly after midnight. No one was injured in the process.
The Israeli armed forces are calling on residents of the Iranian cities of Arak and Khondab to evacuate. A statement in Farsi states that the army is carrying out military actions against Iranian military infrastructure.
Arak and Khondab are close to each other in central Iran. A reactor for nuclear research is located on the outskirts of Khondab, reports The Times of Israel.