Fighting between Israel and Iran enters a seventh day. A hospital in southern Israel has been hit in an Iranian missile strike, while the IDF bombed a nuclear reactor in southwest of Tehran. Follow the latest and listen to The World as you scroll.
Thursday 19 June 2025 09:08, UK
Our correspondent Cordelia Lynch is at the Soroka Hospital in southern Israel after it was hit by Iranian missiles this morning.
She says she saw smoke rising as she arrived.
“We heard eyewitness accounts of people hearing a loud boom as this medical centre was struck,” she says.
“We’ve been seeing patients being wheeled out here, we’ve seen others with minor injuries, but it’s unclear when exactly they incurred those.”
The hospital had been closed to any new patients, with only life-threatening cases being admitted in recent days.
The new ‘rhythm’ to Israeli life
Lynch also reflects on her time in Israel during the fighting with Iran.
“One of the things you’re struck by is the rhythm of life that people have become accustomed to,” she says.
“When those sirens blare out, they head down to their shelters.
“They have come to expect this kind of choreography and I think, yes, there is a degree of fear, of concern, but you also hear a sort of confidence in people as well.”
At least five people have been seriously in Tel Aviv, the Israeli emergency service says.
Israeli air defences were penetrated overnight and trails of missiles and interception efforts were visible in the skies over the central Israeli city this morning as explosions were heard.
The emergency services said five people had been seriously injured in the attack, with dozens of others hurt in three other locations. In south Tel Aviv, people are trapped in a building, it said.
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ramat Gan, in Israel.
The Iron Dome was penetrated over central parts of the country.
Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv, was one of the areas hit by Iranian attacks overnight, leading to extensive damage.
Listen to the latest episode of Politics At Sam And Anne’s, where they ask what Sir Keir Starmer will do if Donald Trump wades into the Middle East.
Yesterday, the US president said he was weighing up strikes on Tehran.
Starmer has so far walked a tightrope with Trump, keeping him on side while appealing to other world leaders.
But possible strikes on Iran represent another hurdle for the Labour leader to clear.
On this episode, our deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss what advice Starmer is getting over potential British involvement in the conflict.
We also hear, as we reported at 7.03, on David Lammy’s trip to Geneva tomorrow where he’ll be meeting his Iranian counterpart.
By Mark Stone, US correspondent
The UK government’s top legal adviser has raised questions over whether Israel’s actions in Iran are lawful, according to a source familiar with discussions inside the government.
The source suggested to Sky News that Attorney General Richard Hermer’s thinking, which has not been published, complicates the UK’s potential involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict.
If the attorney general deems Israel’s actions in Iran to be unlawful then the UK is restricted in its ability to help to defend Israel or support the US in any planned attacks on Iran.
Iran says Israel has struck a heavy water reactor facility, in the western county of Khondab.
The Israeli military said it had targeted the nuclear reactor in the area overnight.
Iran’s atomic energy organisation has described the attack on the facility – originally known as Arak – as a “renewed violation of international law”.
It added Israel’s threats and attacks have been repeatedly reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency – the nuclear watchdog – but it has not taken any action.
There have been no casualties at the site and there is no risk to residents in the area, the group said.
Israel’s defence minister has vowed to “increase the intensity of attacks” against Iran.
It comes after Israel hit a nuclear reactor overnight, and Iran struck a hospital.
Israel Katz posted on X after the attack saying: “The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to the State of Israel and undermine the ayatollahs’ regime.”
In the aftermath of the strike on the Soroka Hospital, in southern Israel, Israeli politicians and leaders have vowed action.
Many were quick to point out that it was an attack on a civilian centre.
Iranian state media reported that the attack’s main target was an adjacent military headquarters.
Iran has issued another threat to the US, as Donald Trump weighs up getting involved in the conflict in the Middle East.
Deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that if the US wanted to intervene to support Israel, then Tehran will “teach aggressors a lesson”.
His words were reported in state media.
Gharibabadi added that Iran advised the US not to get involved, and said that Iran had never sought to expand the conflict.
He added: “All necessary options are on the table.”
Tehran has repeatedly made threatening comments over the prospect of US involvement in the fighting.
At least 639 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Iran, a rights group says.
Another 1,329 people have been injured, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists.
Of the dead, 263 are civilians and 154 are military personnel, with the rest unidentified.
Human Rights Activists, which also provided detailed casualty figures during the 2022 protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, crosschecks local reports in the country against a network of sources.
Iran has not been offering regular updates on the death toll during the conflict.
In the past, it has minimised the casualties it suffers.
Its last update, on Monday, said 224 people were killed and 1,277 were injured.
Here are some of the latest pictures from the Soroka Hospital, in Beer Sheba, southern Israel.
It was hit by an Iranian missile attack overnight – one of a number of areas targeted.
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