Israel has launched strikes on dozens of targets in Iran, including missile production sites, and Iran fired a barrage of missiles that hit near industrial facilities in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba and the northern city of Haifa, as the conflict between the two sides entered its second week.
An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed on Friday morning following an Israeli strike in Tehran, according to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan. The news followed reports from the Iranian media saying that a residential building in the capital’s central Gisha district was hit by a drone strike.
The identity of the scientist was not immediately clear. Israel has killed several nuclear scientists since it started attacking Iran on June 13.
A hospital in Tehran was hit in a separate Israeli missile strike, the third such medical facility damaged in the past eight days, Iran’s health ministry was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the hospital strike, but six ambulances were damaged, the ministry said.
Despite the attacks, thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran following Friday prayers to denounce Israel and the US for the deadly attacks in the country.
In the northwestern province of Kermanshah, a medical clinic was also hit, leaving it completely damaged, according to Press TV.
Both Iran and Israel have been exchanging allegations of targeting medical facilities, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law.
In a statement, Israel’s Defence Minister Israeli Katz said he has instructed the military to intensify attacks on “symbols of the regime” in Tehran, aiming to destabilise it.
“We must strike at all the symbols of the regime and the mechanisms of oppression of the population, such as the Basij [militia], and the regime’s power base, such as the Revolutionary Guard,” Katz said.
Earlier on Friday, at least seven people were lightly injured after Iranian missile strikes hit Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev desert in southern Israel, according to Israeli media.
The attack temporarily shut the city’s central rail station and damaged several buildings including the Microsoft office located inside a technology park, which is also near an Israeli army military telecommunications branch.
After air raid sirens sounded later on Friday, Israeli media reported there were potenti