Key event
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Donald Trump set a two-week deadline to decide whether the US will join Israel’s war with Iran, allowing time to seek a negotiated end to the conflict, the White House has said. The decision to leave a window for diplomacy came after Israel’s defence minister openly embraced regime change in Tehran as a war aim.
Israel Katz said on 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. The Israeli defence minister said that “Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals … such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.” Israeli has routinely attacked hospitals in Gaza, claiming they are used as bases by Hamas.
Foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany are set to meet their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araqchi in Geneva on Friday aiming to create a pathway back to diplomacy over its nuclear programme. UK foreign secretary David Lammy, speaking after a meeting with his US counterpart Marco Rubio on Thursday, said there was a two-week window to “prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.”
At least 22 Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces opened fire on aid seekers near the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, Al Jazeera reported early on Friday, citing a source at al-Awda hospital in Deir al-Balah. On Thursday Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least 72 people, including 21 who had gathered near food distribution sites set up by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF). The dead included women and children, according to Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif, who posted footage of the bodies of children scattered in the street after an Israeli attack on tents housing displaced Palestinians near Gaza City.
Israel carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on Iran’s sprawling nuclear program. Iranian state television said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” and that the facility had been evacuated before the attack. Israel also targeted the Natanz site, which has been hit several times.
A week of Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 657 people and wounded 2,037 others, a human rights group said. The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said of those dead, it identified 263 civilians and 164 security force personnel being killed. Iran has not given regular death tolls during the conflict and has minimized casualties in the past. Its last update on Monday, it put the death toll at 224 people and 1,277 wounded.
At least 240 people were wounded by Iranian missile strikes on Israel on Thursday morning, the AP reported. The outlet said that four individuals has been seriously wounded, citing Israel’s health ministry.
Iran on Thursday accused the UN’s nuclear watchdog of acting as a “partner” in what it described as Israel’s war of aggression. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran in a report prior to the start of the Iran-Israel war of non-compliance with its obligations in its nuclear programme.
Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani warned against targeting Iran’s leadership and said that the Iran-Israel war could plunge the whole region into chaos. Sistani said in a statement on Thursday that any targeting of Iran’s “supreme religious and political leadership” would have “dire consequences on the region”.
Updated
At least 22 Palestinian aid-seekers killed in latest Israeli massacre – report
Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers near the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, killing at least 22 people and injuring more, Al Jazeera reports citing a source at al-Awda hospital in Deir al-Balah.
As we reported earlier, Israeli forces killed another 72 people on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered near food distribution sites set up by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF).
