JERUSALEM — An Iranian missile struck a large hospital in southern Israel on Thursday, causing widespread damage and injuring several patients, as President Donald Trump said he would decide “within the next two weeks” whether to join Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran to stop its nuclear program.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Trump said in a statement read aloud by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in a news conference.
The apparent pivot from Trump bought the American president time and space for further diplomacy to confront the war that has been raging since Friday, when Israel launched waves of strikes on Iran, including the capital, Tehran. Iran soon retaliated with missile and drone attacks on major Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv.
Trump’s comments also came as European officials planned to host a meeting with Iranian officials on Friday in Geneva in an effort to de-escalate the conflict. Israeli and U.S. officials were not expected to take part, leaving the Europeans under no illusions that the gathering would have an immediate effect on the war.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said the talks would focus on “the nuclear issue and the latest developments in the region.”
Leavitt said Thursday that any deal with Iran would have to ban the country from enriching uranium and developing a nuclear weapon, something Trump has repeated often.
She also said that Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy to the Middle East, had maintained correspondence with Iranian officials, even though the government in Tehran had cut off formal talks with the United States over its nuclear program after Israel began its assault last week.
Since then, Trump has sent mixed signals about whether he wanted to take a diplomatic route or use U.S. military force to try to destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear site, Fordo.
“If there’s a chance for diplomacy, the president is always going to grab it,” Leavitt said. “But he’s not afraid to use strength as well.”
As the diplomatic scramble was set to begin, a barrage of Iranian missiles hit several locations in Israel on Thursday, including the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
“There was a massive boom and blast wave,” said Dr. Vadim Bankovich, head of the orthopedics department, whose office faces the floor of the old surgical building, which took a direct hit.
Large slabs of concrete were all that remained from what was once the top floor of the hospital building. Rubble and shattered glass blanketed the surrounding area, even hundreds of feet away. Melted plastic and burned wiring filled the air with a foul smell.
The surgical building that was struck had been evacuated in recent days, hospital officials said. Photos and videos shared by the Israeli fire and rescue service showed fires, broken glass and ceiling panels scattered on the floor.
It was the first Israeli hospital to be hit directly since Israel began attacking Iran on Friday.
Later Thursday, the Israeli military accused Iran of launching a missile with a cluster munition warhead at a populated area in central Israel on Thursday, according to Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson — the first report of that type of weapon being used in the current war.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to respond to the Israeli claim, which was linked to a ballistic missile that struck Or Yehuda, Israel. No one was killed by the missile or its bomblets, and it was unclear if anyone had been injured.
Videos and photographs verified by The New York Times show an unexploded bomblet on the patio of an apartment building in Or Yehuda after an Iranian missile barrage.
Cluster munitions have warheads that burst and scatter numerous bomblets, and are known for causing indiscriminate harm to civilians. More than 100 countries have signed on to a 2008 agreement to prohibit them — but Israel and Iran have not adopted the ban, nor have the United States, Russia, China and India.
The strike on the hospital complex demonstrated that Iran could still inflict serious damage in Israel, despite the Israeli military’s strikes on Iran’s missile launchers as well as Israel’s advanced air-defense systems, which have intercepted most incoming Iranian fire.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said without providing evidence that the strike had “eliminated” an Israeli military command center and “the blast wave caused superficial damage to a small section of the nearby, and largely evacuated,” hospital. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about the claim.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed to avenge the strike, saying on social media, “We will make the tyrants from Tehran pay the full price.”
Netanyahu has asked the United States to help destroy the underground nuclear site at Fordo, a prospect that has added to fears that the war could spiral into a wider conflagration in he region. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to inflict “irreparable damage” if the U.S. military intervened on behalf of Israel.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had launched more strikes on nuclear targets in Iran, including an inactive nuclear reactor at Arak, to prevent the production of material for nuclear weapons, and a “nuclear weapons development site” in Natanz.
Iranian state media confirmed that Israeli warplanes had struck nuclear facilities at Arak but said that there had been no serious damage. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said that a “heavy water research reactor, under construction, was hit” at Arak, but that it was “not operational and contained no nuclear material, so no radiological effects” were recorded.
The strike on the Soroka Medical Center was part of a larger barrage of Iranian missiles that also caused damage in other parts of Israel, including to tall buildings in Ramat Gan and apartment structures in Holon, both cities near Tel Aviv. More than 30 people sustained minor injuries in Ramat Gan, according to Zaki Heller, a spokesperson for Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service. In Holon, Heller said, 18 people were wounded, including three seriously.
The Iranian capital, home to 10 million people, has been turned upside down after nearly a week of Israeli attacks. A near-total internet blackout took effect in Iran on Wednesday evening, rendering communication with the outside world almost impossible. Experts and citizens say that the government was most likely throttling internet access to prevent people from sharing information about where Israel had struck and for fear of Israeli cyberattacks.
Residents have described hearing the constant thud of air-defense systems and the boom of explosions, and seeing normally bustling streets completely empty.
“The atmosphere in Tehran is terrifying,” said Nima, 44, a former bookseller who asked that his last name not be used out of a fear for his safety.
At least 224 people have been killed in Iran, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. Several senior military commanders in Iran have also been killed by Israeli strikes since the war started, according to Israel.
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