Beersheba, 20 June

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will decide within two weeks whether the US military will get directly involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme, as the two sides attacked one another for a seventh day.

Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's “bunker-buster” bombs. His statement was read out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Earlier in the day, Israel's defence minister threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Iranian missiles crashed into a major hospital in southern Israel and hit residential buildings near Tel Aviv, wounding at least 240 people.

Israel's military “has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist", Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

As rescuers wheeled patients out of the smoldering hospital, Israeli warplanes launched their latest attack on Iran's nuclear programme.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Trump would “do what's best for America”.

Speaking from the rubble and shattered glass around the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, he added: “I can tell you that they're already helping a lot."

A new diplomatic initiative appeared to be underway as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepared to travel Friday to Geneva for meetings with the European Union's top diplomat and counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Britain's foreign secretary said he met at the White House with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss the potential for a deal that could cool the conflict.

“A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,” Britain's David Lammy said in a social media post after Thursday's meeting.

Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear programme

Iran has long maintained its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. But it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60 per cent, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

Israel is widely believed to be the only country with a nuclear weapons programme in the Middle East but has never acknowledged the existence of its arsenal.

The Israeli air campaign has targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran, a nuclear site in Isfahan and what the army assesses to be most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers.

The destruction of those launchers has contributed to the steady decline in Iranian attacks since the start of the conflict.

Israeli airstrikes reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early Friday, Iranian media reported. The Israeli military had warned the public to flee the area around Rasht's Industrial City, southwest of the city's downtown. But with Iran's internet shut off to the outside world, it's unclear just how many people could see the message.

The reactor became a point of contention after Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had poured concrete into under the deal.

Israel said strikes were carried out "in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development”.