Israel Attacks Arak Nuclear Facility, Iran Responds with Hospital Strike. Eyes on Donald Trump

The Israeli military said it had attacked a nuclear reactor in Iran's Arak overnight, including a partially constructed reactor that uses heavy water, a compound in which hydrogen atoms have been replaced by the hydrogen isotope deuterium. Heavy-water reactors can produce plutonium, which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of a nuclear bomb.

Iranian media reported that two missiles hit the area near the plant. People were evacuated and there were no reports of a radioactive threat, according to Iran.

The Israeli military said it also attacked a facility near Natanz that, according to Israeli intelligence, contains components and specialized equipment used to develop nuclear weapons.

An Israeli military official said that several Iranian rockets struck residential areas in Israel on Thursday morning, including a hospital in Beersheba in the southern part of the country. The hospital's director, Shlomi Kodesh, added that at the time of the attack all patients and staff were in shelters, but several people were slightly injured, mainly by the blast wave.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said its target was an Israeli military and intelligence headquarters located near the hospital.

Also visible in the sky over Tel Aviv were traces of missiles and attempts to intercept them. Israeli media reported direct hits in Tel Aviv itself and in the nearby cities of Holon and Ramat Gan.

Fears of Middle East Destabilization and Donald Trump's Enigmatic Responses

A week of Israeli air and missile attacks on Iran has destroyed key members of the Iranian military command, crippled the country's nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds, Reuters notes, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least 24 civilians in Israel. The conflict between Israel and Iran, it says, is raising fears of involvement by world powers and further destabilization of the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House, declined to say whether he had made a decision to join Israel's air campaign . "I might do it. I might not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm planning," he replied.

He later added that Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting, but that it was “a little too late” for such talks. Trump has previously suggested that the United States could join the conflict.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on state television, condemned for the first time since Friday Trump's earlier call for Iran to surrender. "Any US military intervention will undoubtedly involve irreversible damage," he said. "The Iranian nation will not surrender," he added.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful purposes only. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said last week that Tehran had breached its commitments for the first time in 20 years.