Israel-Iran conflict threatens to snowball with both countries intensifying missile attacks
Tel Aviv/Tehran, June 19 (UNI) The Israel-Iran conflict threatened to snowball on Thursday with both countries intensifying missile attacks against each other, and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issuing a stern warning to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying he can 'no longer be allowed to exist".
The warning came after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. One of the missiles struck a hospital in southern Israel. The hospital, Saroka Medical Center, is the largest hospital in Southern Israel. About 50 people were reportedly injured in the attack.
Israel struck Iran's nuclear site Arak heavy water reactor. However, Iran denied that any of its missiles had hit a hospital and said it was an Israeli military base and intelligence center.
"The main target of the attack was the Israeli Army Command and Intelligence Base and the Army Intelligence Camp located in the vicinity of the Saroka Hospital. The hospital was exposed only to the blast wave,' Iranian news agency IRNA said.
The Israeli Defence Minister said 'Khamenei will be held accountable for the hospital strike".'
"The cowardly Iranian dictator sits in the depths of a fortified bunker and fires missiles at hospitals and residential buildings in Israel. These are war crimes of the most serious kind-and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes," Katz said in a post on X.
He said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran "to remove threats to Israel".
The Israeli Defence Minister described the Iranian Supreme Leader as a 'modern day Hitler' and said a dictator like Khamenei heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of the State of Israel his declared goal. 'This horrific goal cannot be allowed to continue or materialise,' Katz said.
The Israeli Defence Minister's warning comes days after US President Donald Trump asked the Iranian leader to surrender and warned that they knew where he was hiding and would get him. President Trump also cut short his visit to Canada where he was attending the G-7 Summit.
Meanwhile diplomatic parleys to defuse the snowballing crisis continue with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi saying Iran would participate in the nuclear talks in Geneva on Friday with France, Germany, UK and the EU.
Araqchi is also expected to attend a special session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Turkey on Saturday.
EDS: XXX Pick up suitably from earlier Iran-Israel stories.
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