Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said today (Thursday, June 19) that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist” after Soroka hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv: “Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal,
“Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”
At Keast 240 Wounded By Iranian Missile Strikes
The Associated Press (AP) reports that at least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missile strikes on Thursday morning.
The outlet said that four individuals have been seriously wounded, according to Israel’s Health Ministry.
The vast majority were lightly wounded, including more than 70 people from Soroka hospital in the southern city of Beersheba, where smoke rose as emergency teams evacuated patients.
Two doctors told the AP that the missile struck the hospital almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing a loud explosion that could be heard from a safe room.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.
Another Missile Strikes Skyscraper In Ramat Gan, Israel
A missile struck the base of a skyscraper on Jabotinsky street in Ramat Gan, close to central Tel Aviv and about 200 metres from the city’s diamond exchange.
Local people said a takeaway pizza business took the full force of the strike, but some older apartment blocks across the world were also wrecked by the force of the blast, which had smashed windows across the district.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. After six days of war, residents were accustomed to rushing to their shelters.
“It was like an atom bomb. An earthquake,” said Asher Adiv, a 69-year-old who lives in a nearby apartment block. His mother was an Iranian Jew from Isfahan and Asher grew up speaking Farsi, the Iranian language. He had strong ideas about what should happen next.
He said: “The Iranian people should make a revolution, and kick out the ayatollahs.
“We are not just fighting for Israel. We are fighting for the whole world. We ask Trump to go inside and finish the problem.”
The U.S president, now considering his military options, was the first subject most local residents wanted to bring up, as they gathered at the police tape to watch first responders go about their work among the rubble and shattered glass.
Asher’s wife, Anny, an immigrant from Morocco who came to Israel in 1969, said she thought Israel would prevail even without U.S intervention.
She said: “Tell Donald Trump to be beside us. He has to bomb them to finish the nuclear sites.
“We are innocent citizens, but they threaten us all the time and say they want to kill us. We didn’t have any choice. We saw what happened on 7 October.
“Our people are strong and resilient. We will keep fighting and we will finish the Iran nuclear sites or they will finish us.”
