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The Guardian
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Netanyahu stuns Israelis by describing ‘personal cost' of postponing son's wedding
Benjamin Netanyahu has evoked the spirit of London under the Blitz, and pointed to his own family's sacrifice amid the blood, toil, tears and sweat of his nation: the second postponement of his son's wedding. The Israeli prime minister's remarks, solemnly delivered to the cameras against the backdrop of a missile-struck hospital building in the southern city of Be'er Sheva, set off a howl of derision that echoed around the Hebrew-language internet, at the height of a war that Netanyahu unleashed on Friday. The stunning comments also added grist to the arguments of his critics that the prime minister is increasingly cut off emotionally from the daily realities of Israel and the region, after more than 17 years in office. Seeking to underline his family's shared hardship with ordinary Israelis, Netanyahu adopted a Churchillian tone when pointing out that this was not the first time his son Avner's wedding had needed to be postponed, and that Avner's fiancee was also disappointed, not to mention the thwarted mother of the groom, Netanyahu's wife, Sara. 'It really reminds me of the British people during the Blitz. We are going through a Blitz,' Netanyahu said, referring to the wartime Nazi bombing of Britain in which 43,000 civilians died. 'There are people who were killed, families who grieved loved ones, I really appreciate that,' he went on. The Israeli authorities say that 24 Israeli civilians have so far been killed. Washington-based human rights activists have estimated the Iranian civilian death toll to be 263. 'Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt,' Netanyahu said at the Soroka hospital, which was struck on Thursday morning by an Iranian missile, causing light injuries. 'This is the second time that my son Avner has canceled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.' Avner Netanyahu's wedding was first scheduled in November and had to be postponed for security reasons. Then it was due to take place on Monday, despite threat of opposition protests. Reports that the prime minister was going to take a few days off for the event may have contributed to Iran's complacency on Friday morning when the leadership was taken unawares by Israel's aerial attack. The Israeli backlash to Netanyahu's nuptial comments was instant and furious. Anat Angrest, whose son Matan has been held hostage since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, observed that the suffering 'didn't go unnoticed by my family either'. 'I have been in the hellish dungeons of Gaza for 622 days now,' Angrest said in a post on the social media platform X. Gilad Kariv, a Knesset member for the Democrats, called Netanyahu a 'borderless narcissist'. 'I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,' Kariv said. He was contemptuous of Netanyahu's claim that his wife, Sara, notorious in Israeli for her expensive tastes, was a hero. 'The doctors who leave home for night shifts are the heroes,' Kariv said. 'The teachers who keep our children together on Zoom and phone calls are the heroes.' Amir Tibon, an Israeli journalist, argued that public figures whose children had been killed in combat would never draw attention to the fact. 'But there are no surprises with Netanyahu,' Tibon said. 'Even in moments when a personal example is most needed, he is first and foremost concerned with himself.'
The Standard
4 hours ago
- Health
- The Standard
Israel attacks Iranian nuclear sites, missile damages Israeli hospital
Smokes raises from a building of the Soroka hospital complex after it was hit by a missile fired from Iran in Be'er Sheva, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (Photo: AP/Leo Correa)
Russia Today
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Israel issues death threat to Iran's supreme leader
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, 'can no longer be allowed to exist.' Previous media reports suggested that US President Donald Trump blocked an Israeli plan to assassinate him. Israel launched airstrikes last Friday targeting Iranian nuclear facilities and carried out targeted killings of senior military officials. The attacks elicited an Iranian response and the two countries have traded blows since. Katz made the statement following a missile strike that reportedly seriously damaged Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, a major city in southern Israel. Shlomi Codish, the hospital's director general, said the missile hit an old building that had been evacuated. 'There is widespread damage to other buildings at the hospital. All patients and all staff were in shelters,' Codish said. 'The several injured we have are lightly hurt, mostly from the blast shockwave.' Katz claimed Khamenei was personally ordering strikes on hospitals, which he asserted justified calling for the Iranian leader's death. He also accused Khamenei of seeking Israel's destruction. Iranian media, however, reported that the intended target was an Israeli military intelligence facility located in the Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies Park, about 1.3km from the hospital. Reports from several Western outlets last week stated that Israel had consulted the US about a plan to assassinate Khamenei prior to the latest escalation. According to Axios, Trump rejected the idea, with US officials telling Israel, 'The Iranians haven't killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table.' In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran had tried to assassinate Trump twice and still considered him a target due to his firm stance against Tehran. The US authorities accused two individuals, one of them posthumously, in two separate cases of trying to assassinate Trump on his 2024 campaign trails, but linked neither to Tehran. US officials also claimed that Iran conspired with people in the US to kill Trump before his second election victory, which Tehran denied. Trump threatened Khamenei this week, stating on social media that he is 'an easy target, but is safe' because 'we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.' He also demanded unconditional surrender from Iran.
Fox News
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Israel vows vengeance after Iran targets hospital with ballistic missile Thursday
incoming update… Fox News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst was outside Soroka Medical Center on Thursday after it was hit by Iran in a major missile attack. Yingst reported that the hospital was still burning. It is located in the city of Be'er Sheva in southern Israel. The hospital suffered a direct hit from Iranian ballistic missiles. At least 65 people were injured in Israel during the missile barrage that began Thursday morning. It is unclear how many people were injured in the strike on the hospital. President Donald Trump appears to be downplaying talk that some of his long-loyal MAGA supporters are breaking with him over the possibility that the president will order a military strike on Iran. This amid the nearly week-long daily trading of fire between the Islamic State and Israel, America's top ally in the Middle East. "My supporters are more in love with me today, and I'm more in love with them, more than they even were at election time," the president said when asked about a GOP rift between some of his most vocal supporters of his America First agenda, and more traditional national security conservatives. The president, speaking to reporters on Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House, added: "I may have some people that are a little bit unhappy now, but I have some people that are very happy, and I have people outside of the base that can't believe that this is happening. They're so happy." Asked if he would order an attack on Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the president said, "I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble." The prospect of Trump jumping into the incredibly volatile situation in the Middle East is causing plenty of consternation among some of his top political and ideological allies, and creating divisions within MAGA - a rare moment for a movement that's been firmly supportive of Trump since his 2016 White House campaign. This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser Iran's foreign minister is set to meet with European counterparts in Geneva amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, Iranian state media reported Thursday. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Geneva for the meetings on Friday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Live Coverage begins here
Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Photos: Iran launches missile attacks as Israel strikes nuclear sites
An Iranian missile slammed into the main hospital in southern Israel, wounding people and causing 'extensive damage,' according to the medical facility. However, IRNA, the Islamic Republic News Agency, has said on Telegram that the 'main target' of the missile attack early on Thursday 'was the large [Israeli army] Command and Intelligence (IDF C4I) headquarters and the military intelligence camp in the Gav-Yam Technology Park'. It said that this facility is located next to Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva. IRNA claimed that the hospital only suffered minor damage from the shockwave resulting from the missile attack. 'The military infrastructure was a precise and direct target,' it said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and promised a response, saying: 'We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.' Another missile hit a high-rise building and several other residential buildings in at least two sites near Tel Aviv. At least 47 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor in its latest attack on the country's sprawling nuclear programme, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli air strikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists. Israel's military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to stop it from being used to produce plutonium. Israel separately claimed to have struck another site around Natanz that it described as being related to Iran's nuclear programme. Iranian state TV said there was 'no radiation danger whatsoever' from the attack on the Arak site. Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East – but does not acknowledge having such weapons.
