Israel-Iran latest: Israeli minister says supreme leader ‘cannot continue to exist’ after Tehran strikes hospital

A Washington-based Iranian human-rights group says at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded.

In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds.

Most Iranian drones and missiles have been shot down by Israel’s multi-tiered air defences, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading towards population centres and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is imperfect.

Iran’s foreign minister has warned Israeli civilians to leave areas around military targets before they are hit.

“We call on Israelis to heed our evacuation orders before strikes and to avoid proximity to military and intelligence sites,” Abbas Araghchi wrote on social media.

“Our powerful Armed Forces will continue to pummel the criminals who target our people until they cease and pay for their criminal aggression against our nation.”

The Israeli military says about 20 fighter jets have struck in western Iran.

“In all of the strikes, surface-to-surface missile infrastructure sites and soldiers in Iran’s military forces were struck,” it said.

In addition, the Israeli Air Force identified the movement of trucks carrying surface-to-surface missiles, it said. “The trucks were struck when they arrived at the launch sites.”

Iran could shut the Strait of Hormuz to hit back against its enemies, a top politician has said.

Shipping sources said on Wednesday that commercial ships were avoiding Iran’s waters around the strait.

“Iran has numerous options to respond to its enemies and uses such options based on what the situation is,” a news agency quoted Behnam Saeedi, a member of the parliament’s National Security Committee presidium as saying.

“Closing the Strait of Hormuz is one of the potential options for Iran,” he said.

The Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Oman and Iran, is the primary export route for Gulf oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Kuwait.

An Israeli military official said on Thursday that “it was a mistake” for a military spokesperson to have said earlier in the day that Israel had struck the Bushehr nuclear site in Iran.

The official would only confirm that Israel had hit the Natanz, Isfahan and Arak nuclear sites in Iran.

It comes after Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, demanded that Israel halt strikes on the plant. Ms Zakharova also repeated a Russian warning to the United States not to get involved militarily in the Israel-Iran conflict, saying this would have unpredictable and negative consequences.

Pressed further on Bushehr, the official said he could neither confirm or deny that Israel had struck the location, where Iran has a reactor.

Iran has asserted that it possesses and has begun deploying advanced hypersonic missiles against Israel. However, these claims currently lack any verifiable evidence, and military experts have expressed scepticism.

Should these high-speed projectiles indeed be in Iran’s arsenal and deployed, they could present an unprecedented challenge to Israel’s sophisticated missile-defence system, the iron dome.

This potential shift in military capability, if proven true, would undoubtedly alter the dynamics of the long-standing and bitter conflict between the two nations.

Here’s a closer look at these advanced weapons:

The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Israel to immediately halt air attacks on the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran where Russian specialists work.

Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent in order to reduce nuclear proliferation risk.

Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, repeated a Russian warning to the United States not to get involved militarily in the Israel-Iran conflict, saying this would have unpredictable and negative consequences.