{"id":1313,"date":"2025-06-19T11:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/israel-attacks-irans-arak-nuclear-reactor-as-iran-strikes-israeli-hospital\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T11:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:35:21","slug":"israel-attacks-irans-arak-nuclear-reactor-as-iran-strikes-israeli-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/19\/israel-attacks-irans-arak-nuclear-reactor-as-iran-strikes-israeli-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel attacks Iran\u2019s Arak nuclear reactor as Iran strikes Israeli hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iranian media report air defences were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility, formerly called Arak.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A new wave of Iranian missiles has struck multiple sites across Israel, damaging a hospital, and Israel has attacked Iran\u2019s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor as the two countries trade fire for a seventh consecutive day.<\/p>\n

Rescue operations were under way on Thursday after an Iranian missile hit the Soroka Medical Center in the city of Beersheba in southern Israel. Iran said it was targeting a military site in the attack.<\/p>\n

Reports said the Iranian projectiles made impact in at least six other locations, including in Tel Aviv and two of its districts \u2013 Holon and Ramat Gan. Emergency crews said at least 50 people were injured, including four who were in critical condition.<\/p>\n

The Israeli army said its fighter jets struck dozens of sites in Iran, including the Arak heavy water nuclear reactor.<\/p>\n

The partially built reactor was originally called Arak and is now named Khondab.<\/p>\n

The military said it specifically targeted \u201cthe structure of the reactor\u2019s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iranian media reported air defences were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility and two projectiles hit an area close to it.<\/p>\n

Officials told Iranian state TV that evacuations were made before the strikes and no risk of radiation or casualties was detected. There was no mention of any damage.<\/p>\n

The attacks were carried out as the two countries traded fire for a seventh day after Israel launched a major attack on Friday on Iranian military facilities and nuclear sites, killing senior military officials and top nuclear scientists.<\/p>\n

Iran responded to that attack with air strikes on Israel, and the conflict has since widened to include civilian targets, including residential areas and oil and gas facilities.<\/p>\n

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel although most have been shot down by Israel\u2019s multitiered air defences.<\/p>\n

Major hospital<\/h2>\n

The Soroka Medical Center, which has more than 1,000 beds and provides services to about 1 million residents of southern Israel, said in a statement there was \u201cextensive damage\u201d in several areas of the hospital and the emergency room was treating several minor injuries. The hospital was closed to all new patients except for life-threatening cases.<\/p>\n

Many hospitals in Israel have activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and moving patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a war crime committed by the Iranian regime,\u201d Israeli Health Minister Uriel Buso was quoted as saying by Israeli Army Radio in reference to the attack on Soroka. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Iranian leaders they would pay \u201ca heavy price\u201d for the attack.<\/p>\n

\"Israel
Rescue workers and military personnel inspect the site of an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel [Oded Balilty\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Iranian news agency IRNA said the \u201cmain target\u201d of the Beersheba attack \u201cwas the large [Israeli army] Command and Intelligence (IDF C4I) headquarters and the military intelligence camp in the Gav-Yam Technology Park\u201d. The facility is next to the Soroka Medical Center, it said, claiming the health facility suffered only minor damage from the shockwave resulting from the missile strike.<\/p>\n

Tight military censorship in Israel means information about sites such as military and intelligence facilities are not released to the public. According to Israeli media reports, a building next to the hospital described as \u201csensitive\u201d sustained heavy damage.<\/p>\n

Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator, told Al Jazeera that Israeli authorities were focusing on the hospital attack and trying to send a \u201cmessage that the Iranians target hospitals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, Israelis target hospitals as well. It\u2019s important to mention that there really are very sensitive installations and headquarters very near to the hospital because Israel places its military headquarters in the midst of civilian neighbourhoods and towns,\u201d he added, speaking from Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Iranian state TV, meanwhile, reported the attack on the Arak site, saying there was \u201cno radiation danger whatsoever\u201d. An Iranian state television reporter, speaking live in the nearby town of Khondab, said the facility had been evacuated and there was no damage to civilian areas around the reactor.<\/p>\n

Israel had warned earlier on Thursday morning that it would attack the facility and urged the public to leave. The Israeli military said its latest round of air strikes also targeted Tehran and other areas of Iran, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

The strikes came a day after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected United States calls for a surrender and warned that any US military involvement in the conflict would cause \u201cirreparable damage to them\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Washington, DC-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran in the past week of air strikes and more than 1,300 have been wounded. Iran has fired about 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, killing at least 24 people and wounding hundreds.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: <\/p>\n

Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian media report air defences were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility, formerly called Arak. A new wave of Iranian missiles has struck multiple sites across Israel, damaging a hospital, and Israel has attacked Iran\u2019s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor as the two countries trade fire for a seventh consecutive day. Rescue … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}