The Washington Post
Israel and Iran continued to exchange strikes Friday: Israel’s military said it struck military targets in Tehran, Tabriz and Kermanshah, while an office building in a tech park in southern Israel was damaged in a missile strike. Nineteen people — two in moderate to serious condition — arrived at Rambam Medical Center after an explosion near government buildings in northern Israel’s Haifa Bay, a spokesperson for the medical facility confirmed.
Several European foreign ministers are convening Friday with their Iranian counterpart in Geneva for a meeting that is being coordinated with Washington, after President Donald Trump said there is a “substantial chance of negotiations” with Iran and that he will wait up to two weeks to decide whether to attack the country’s nuclear program. Trump’s statement marks a change in tone from his bellicose comments earlier this week.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the military Friday to intensify strikes to destabilize Iran’s government, alongside attacks on “facilities and scientists to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.”
The Israel Defense Forces wrote on Telegram on Friday that Israeli fighter jets carried out dozens of strikes against military targets in Iran overnight, including missile manufacturing sites in Tehran and a “site producing a critical component of the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons program.” The IDF said strikes hit the headquarters of Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research in Tehran (known by its Persian acronym, SPND). Israel and the United States say SPND has conducted research and development that could be applicable to nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery systems.
The IDF said Friday’s strikes targeted Iranian military targets in the Kermanshah and Tabriz regions, and that Iranian missile systems and radar installations in the areas of Isfahan and Tehran were hit in recent days.
An office building at a hub for tech companies in southern Israel was damaged in an attack as Iran said it was targeting the area. The building displayed the logo of an Israeli military school for software and cyberdefense, according to a Washington Post reporter on the ground, while Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency said the strike targeted Israel’s “killing technology.”
Thirty-one people are being treated in Rambam Medical Center after an Iranian missile hit an area in Haifa Bay, the medical facility confirmed on X.
Among the patients, one is in serious condition, two are in moderate condition and the rest are lightly injured, the hospital said.
Hundreds of U.S. citizens have left Iran through land borders since Israel began its strikes June 13, according to a State Department cable shared with The Washington Post by a State Department official, on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The cable said Americans may encounter checkpoints or questioning by Iranian authorities. The state department did not a respond immediately to a request for comment on the cable and threats faced by Americans in Iran.
In photos: Aftermath of Iranian missile attack on Haifa
Iran launched a ballistic missile attack Friday on the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, damaging several buildings. Israeli emergency workers were on the scene that morning, as The Washington Post’s Heidi Levine documented the aftermath.
A handful of cars were destroyed in the attack, and emergency workers could be seen surveying the damage — wandering around the wreckage of one unused building and tossing out large debris. Some windows on nearby towers were blown out in the explosion.
Haifa is home to a major naval base and key infrastructure installations, making it a strategic target for Iranian attacks. Along with Friday’s strike, Iran also launched a barrage of missiles at Haifa Sunday night.
Friday’s attack also appears to have hit a mosque in Haifa, Israeli officials said. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the strike injured Muslim clerics and worshipers, and promised that Israel would defend Israelis of all faiths.
Iran’s strikes have killed 29 people and wounded around 900 since the conflict began last Friday, Israeli Permanent Representative to the United Nations Danny Danon said Friday in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
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