This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Israel vowed to “remove” Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat after Iranian air strikes hit a hospital as fears among many countries grew over prospects the United States would join the fight to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Israeli military officials said several populated areas inside the country were attacked by Iran early on June 19, including a hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. Local media said there was severe damage to one ward of the hospital, with 40 people suffering mainly minor injuries.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to the Tasnim news agency associated with the IRGC, said it had targeted an Israeli military and intelligence headquarters near the Soroka medical center — the only Level 1 trauma center in southern Israel — in Beersheba.
Israel said it bombed nuclear targets in Iran on June 19, including the Natanz and Isfahan sites. It had said the Busher site, the location of the country’s only functioning nuclear power plant, was hit, but later retracted the statement.
“We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters in Beersheba.
“Our goal is twofold — nuclear, ballistic missile. We’re going to remove them. We are in the process of completing the (removal of) this threat.”
Meanwhile Defense Minister Israel Katz said instructions had been handed down to “increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran, warning Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist.”
“Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed — he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals…He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist,” Katz said.
The increased intensity on the ground comes as speculation grows over possible direct US involvement in the conflict, the worst ever between the two archenemies.
The Wall Street Journal, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that Trump had told aides he had approved plans for US forces to join Israel in the attacks on Iran but that he was waiting to see if Tehran would give up its nuclear program.
Bloomberg also reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that US officials are preparing for a potential strike on Iran in the next few days, possibly over the weekend.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump did not confirm those reports, saying he was “not looking to fight” Iran but that he might be forced to conduct such operations to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
“I’m not looking to fight,” he said. “But if it’s a choice between fighting and [Iran] having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”
“You may have to fight,” he later stated.
“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump told reporters later outside the White House.
Meanwhile, The New York Times, citing a senior Iranian official, said Tehran is open to a meeting with US negotiators to discuss a cease-fire and that Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi would attend such talks.
As tensions rose, Washington’s European allies heightened efforts to bring about a diplomatic solution.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with Araqchi on June 20 in Geneva, while the United Nations has scheduled a meeting on the crisis for the same day.
A German diplomatic source told news agencies that the Geneva talks are aimed at persuading Iran to guarantee it will use its nuclear program solely for civilian purposes.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on June 19 that there is a “real risk of escalation” and urged Trump to step back from military action against Iran.
Israel launched the current offensive against Iran on June 13 saying it was necessary to halt Tehran’s nuclear program.
On June 18, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected Trump’s call for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender.”
Khamenei said peace or war could not be imposed on the Islamic republic and warned the United States to stay on the sidelines of the conflict.
The 86-year-old Khamenei — who under Iran’s constitution has the final say on all strategic matters — was responding to comments by Trump late on June 17 that Iran’s leader is safe “for now” while he urged Tehran to offer its “unconditional surrender.”
“The Iranian nation is not one to surrender,” Khamenei said in a prerecorded nationally televised address on June 18. “Americans should know that any military involvement by the US will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage to themselves.”
Trump on June 17 wrote on social media that Khamenei “is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,”
“Our patience is wearing thin,” he added just hours after he called for a “real end” to deadly air strikes by both Iran and Israel.
Israel and many of its Western allies, including the United States, accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Tehran has vehemently rejected the accusations, saying its atomic program is purely for civilian purposes.
The Israeli military confirmed it was carrying out a “series of strikes” around the Iranian capital and other areas of the country on June 19, while also issuing evacuation warnings on social media in Arabic and Persian for residents and others near the Arak heavy-water reactor 250 kilometers southeast of Tehran and in the nearby Khondab area.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” Israel’s military said.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said later on June 19 that it has information that the Khondab heavy-water research reactor, still under construction, was hit.
“It was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects,” it said.
The attacks have left millions of ordinary Iranians shaken, with thousands jamming highways leading out of Tehran to other cities as well as foreign destinations such as Turkey and Armenia, where they are seeking refuge from the fighting.
Israel’s military has said that, since the offensive was launched, more than 1,100 targets inside Iran have been struck.
Much of the country’s military and scientific leadership has been killed in air strikes, that rights groups say have also caused scores of civilian deaths.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a nongovernmental organization of Iranian activists based in the United States, reported on June 19 that 263 civilians, 154 security personnel, and 224 unspecified people had died in Israeli air attacks.
It added that more than 1,300 more have been injured. The figures are based, it says, on official data and local reports.
Israeli officials say 24 people in Israel have been killed in retaliatory air strikes launched by Iran. Authorities said that since June 13, Iran has fired some 400 missiles at Israel, with about 40 having bypassed air defenses to hit targets.
