Separate Iranian strikes hit a high-rise apartment building in Tel Aviv and other sites in central Israel.
A hospital in Tel Aviv said it had received 16 wounded people, three with serious injuries.
In a response to the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran’s “terrorist tyrants” launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in central Israel.
He vowed to “exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran”.
That came after Israel carried out strikes on Iran’s Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor earlier in the day, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel’s multi-tiered air defenses, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centers and critical infrastructure. Israeli officials acknowledge it is imperfect.
The missile hit the Soroka Medical Center, which has over 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately one million residents of Israel’s south.
Many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and move patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.
Iranian state TV, meanwhile, reported the attack on the Arak site, saying there was “no radiation danger whatsoever.”
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.
Israel had warned early on Thursday it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area. The Israeli military said Thursday’s round of airstrikes targeted Tehran and other areas of Iran, without elaborating. (AP)
