𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

An Iranian missile barrage targeted Israel this morning, including a “direct hit” on a medical building.

Details remained sparse after the attack. However, firefighters said it appeared the medical building and some apartment buildings had been hit.

There was no immediate word on whether anyone was hurt.

Donald Trump has claimed that Iran was “just weeks away” from having a nuclear weapon in contradiction to a US intelligence report, which found that Tehran was not rushing to build a bomb.

“I have been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I have been saying this for a long time and I think they were a few weeks away from having one,” the US president said.

“Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Too much devastation. And they’d use it. You know, I believe they’d use it. Others won’t use it, but I believe they’d use it,” he claimed.

However, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said in March that Iran had not made a decision to build nuclear weapons despite having stockpiles of enriched uranium.

Israel has attacked Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, Iranian state television said this morning.

The report said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had already been evacuated before the attack.

Israel warned earlier it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area.

Donald Trump has reportedly rejected Israel’s proposal to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to US officials.

The president reportedly waved off plans presented by Israeli officials who briefed the White House in recent days with a credible plan to kill Iran’s top leader, according to reports citing administration officials.

The Trump administration is publicly holding out for diplomatic talks between the nations to avoid conflict from exploding across the region as Israel bombards Iran in an ostensible attempt to debilitate the country’s nuclear program. A plan to kill Khamenei could likely inflame an already volatile situation and potentially destabilise the region.

The US state department has begun evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the US embassy in Israel.

A government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and their family members from Israel yesterday, two US officials told the Associated Press.

There was no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight or how many may have left by land routes to Jordan or Egypt.

The flight arrived shortly before US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuations by plane and ship for private American citizens.

The evacuation was necessitated after the hostilities between Israel and Iran intensified after president Donald Trump warned of the possibility of getting directly involved in the conflict.

Iran and Israel traded further air attacks this morning as the conflict between the two nations entered day seven.

A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival, which began last Friday, has wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities, and killed about 640 people. Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed two dozen civilians in Israel.

The worst-ever conflict between the rivals has raised fears that it will draw in world powers and rock regional stability already undermined by the spillover effects of the Gaza war.

Tehran this morning said it activated air defences to intercept drones outside the capital, the semi-official SNN news agency reported. Iranian news agencies also reported it had arrested 18 “enemy agents” who were building drones for Israeli attacks in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office, said Israel was “progressing step by step” towards eliminating threats posed by Iran’s nuclear sites and ballistic missile arsenal.

“We are hitting the nuclear sites, the missiles, the headquarters, the symbols of the regime,” Mr Netanyahu said.

At least 639 Iranians have died in Israel’s week-long attack on Iran, a Washington-based human rights group has said.

Of those killed, at least 263 were civilians, Human Rights Activists said, adding that about 1,329 people sustained injuries in Israeli strikes.

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

Israel’s military warned people today to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor.

In a post on X, the military shared a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like other warnings that preceded strikes.

Israel’s seventh day of airstrikes on Iran came a day after Iran’s supreme leader rejected US calls for surrender and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them”.

Israel also lifted some restrictions on daily life, suggesting the missile threat from Iran on its territory was easing.