The director-general of Soroka Medical Centre says several wards at the hospital were "completely demolished" after it was hit by an Iranian missile this morning.

"There is extensive damage across the entire hospital, with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings, across the medical centre," Shlomi Kodesh says.

He says patients had been evacuated from the northern surgical building before the strikes. "This specific building, because it's an older building, was evacuated by us in the past few days," he says, adding that the department "was empty at the time it was hit".

But other departments that still had patients in them were also affected, Kodesh says.

"We have 40 injured people from people who were in the hospital at the time. The vast majority of these staff and patients are likely wounded from broken glass, falling ceilings, and other effects."

The hospital will transfer over 200 patients to other medical centres while teams assess the damage, he adds.

Vitaly Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

Image source, AFP

America’s intervention in the conflict between Israel and Iran would lead to “another terrible spiral of escalation”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told Russian state news agency TASS.

The US and Russia are supporting different sides in the conflict.

While Donald Trump is demanding an “unconditional surrender” from Iran and is reportedly considering strikes against it, Moscow sees Tehran as a key ally.

Earlier this year, Vladimir Putin signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, Article One of which says they are keen to develop defence and security cooperation.

Iran has also supplied Moscow with Shahed drones that have played a key part in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Russian foreign ministry has condemned Israel’s strikes as “cynical” and “unprovoked”, and just yesterday Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov warned the US not to provide military assistance to Israel.

“This would dramatically destabilise the whole situation,” he said.

All this sets Moscow and Washington on a collision course over the Israel-Iran crisis, and could prove to be a major hurdle in the Russia-US relationship that has been improving since Donald Trump’s re-election.

Image source, EPA

Israel's defence minister says Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, "can no longer be allowed to exist" after the Soroka hospital was hit during an Iranian missile attack, according to local media and the AFP news agency.

Speaking to journalists in Holon, near Tel Aviv, Israel Katz reportedly said: "Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed, he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals.

"He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal...Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."

Earlier, Iranian state media said the main target of this morning’s missile strike was a military site next to Soroka Hospital, not the hospital itself.

The US has a strong military presence in the Middle East, with plenty of bases scattered across the region, including near Iran.

Iran has warned it would hit back if the US launched an attack. The country’s Supreme Leader said yesterday that “any form of US military intervention will undoubtedly be met with irreparable harm”.

US President Donald Trump has not given a clear answer on whether the US would attack Iran, only saying, "I may do it, I may not do it" when asked about it.

Image source, Getty Images

US diplomat David Satterfield says disagreements in Washington over a possible US strike on Iran are "not over the effect" of a strike on the Fordo nuclear facility.

"It's rather whether such an action would in fact put a decisive end to the Iranian nuclear programme," he tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's one thing for the US to robustly support Israel. It is another thing for the US itself, its aircraft, its weapons, to strike on Iranian soil," he adds.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is making nuclear weapons. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has also said Iran is not building a nuclear bomb, but Trump has dismissed her comments.

Our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher says the divide mirrors the 2003 rift over the Iraq war.

Could there still be a diplomatic breakthrough?published at 11:09 British Summer Time

11:09 BST

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

Will the next 24 hours bring the moment President Trump gives the green light to a US military plan or a breakthrough in diplomacy?

Trump is boasting he “likes to decide at the last second”.

Is this part of psychological warfare, or his belief it’s the best way to do a deal?

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to attend talks in Geneva tomorrow with his British, German and French counterparts and the UN Security Council will convene in New York.

Other countries with close ties to Trump including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE had made it clear to him on his recent foreign tour that they don't want a war in their neighbourhood.

Trump is still hinting a negotiated agreement is possible.

Just days before Israel launched its strikes I saw Iran’s foreign minister and Oman’s top diplomat Al Busaidi, the mediator, and they were focused on talks which had been set to take place last Sunday.

There was a sense, shared by western diplomats too, a deal could be done.

But one of the main issues was whether the US would drop its demand for Iran to reduce nuclear enrichment to zero – a red line for Iran.

So Tehran and Washington are talking tough, attacks by Iran and Israel intensify, and, behind the scenes, telephone lines are burning.

Image source, NurPhoto/Getty Images

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Ramat Gan

Image source, EPA

About five hours ago, an Iranian ballistic missile struck the business district of Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv, where there are several glass-panelled skyscrapers.

Just now, a large sheet of glass from a balcony dropped out of its frame and fell several floors onto a roof. A few seconds later a warped metal rod from an electrical pylon fell out of the sky.

Authorities are clearly worried about the risk of falling objects and have cordoned off most of the pavement.

About 20 people are believed to have been injured by the blast here, authorities say, and there are large rescue crews sorting through the wreckage.

Israeli authorities say three people have been seriously injured after an Iranian missile hit Holon earlier today.

Here are the latest pictures we're getting from the area.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The number of people injured in the latest wave of strikes on Israel from Iran has risen to 89, according to Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA).

Rocket impacts around Tel Aviv and in the south of the country have left three people seriously hurt, while two others are in a moderate condition.

Medics say many of those wounded suffered blast and shrapnel injuries.

Image source, Reuters

Iran's president has spoken to the nation in a social media post, saying he has directed every part of the government to "serve Iran".

"All ministries and government agencies have been assigned the mission to serve Iran with all their might and resources, in line with your patience and support, without sparing any service," Masoud Pezeshkian says.

"By the grace of God and with the help of empathy and solidarity, we will get through these difficult days," Pezeshkian adds.

Iran's deputy foreign minister has warned the US as President Donald Trump considers whether to join Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iranian state media quotes Kazem Gharibabadi as saying: "If the US wants to actively intervene in support of Israel, Iran will have no other option but to use its tools to teach aggressors a lesson and defend itself."

"Our recommendation to the US is to at least stand by if they do not wish to stop Israel's aggression," he says, adding that Iran's "military decision-makers have all necessary options on the table".

As the world waits for Trump’s decision, his former deputy national security advisor KT McFarland has given some insight into how he might decide.

She tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the US president may turn to his personal network for advice on whether to attack Iran.

McFarland says that, unlike most presidents who rely on their staff and cabinet for briefings, Trump prefers to talk to people he knows, like Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

But in the end, McFarland says, it will be Trump alone who makes the call.

“And once he’s made the decision, he doesn’t second-guess himself. He just lets it happen,” she says.

When the US bombed Syrian airfields in 2017, McFarland says Trump went to have dinner with President Xi of China straight after ordering the strikes.

“He got word in the middle of eating chocolate cake for dessert that the American mission had been completed,” she says.

Image source, AFP

"I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do."

That was what Trump said on the White House lawn yesterday, when asked if the US was getting closer to striking nuclear sites in Iran.

Since then, reports say he approved plans for a US attack, but is holding off for now in case Iran agrees to give up its nuclear programme.

Iran's mission to the UN has cast doubt on this happening, saying it does not "negotiate under duress".

Trump's former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland says the US president will wait until the last minute to decide.

But without an outside deadline, it’s not clear what that might mean.

Arielle Harper, a third-year medical student in Beersheba, told BBC World Service's Newsday she was next to Soroka Hospital when the Iranian strike happened.

"There was an incredible thud and shake of the whole building, louder than anything I have heard," she says.

Harper also says the Israeli military's Home Front Command have done everything possible to keep people safe, sending alerts and sharing information about shelters.

Tom Bennett
Reporting from Holon

Image source, EPA

I’ve just arrived in Holon where Israeli authorities say three people were seriously injured by an Iranian missile that struck here earlier.

A block of flats has had its roof caved in, and dozens of police and rescue workers are combing through the debris.

As we’ve seen with almost all of these ballistic missile strikes, buildings as far as 200m (656ft) away have had their windows and shutters blown through by the shockwave.

One man, whose apartment was torn apart by the blast, managed to escape with his pet parrot.

Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Beersheba

The reception area at Soroka Hospital is full of army, police and emergency teams.

There's a chemical smell mixed in with the dust floating through the doors to the surgery department.

One of the soldiers assisting with the clean-up there says it looks bad, and it's lucky no-one is hurt.

Doctors tell Israeli radio that patients were moved from this department only yesterday to a secure underground site.

Others, including one man waiting in the emergency department, are covered with debris in the blast.

A stream of officials and politicians are now arriving at the site as a drone flies constantly overhead.

Here are the latest updates:

In Israel

• An Israeli hospital in Beersheba, in the south of the country, has been damaged by a missile strike
• Iran says the intended target was a military site near the hospital
• Several places in Israel were hit overnight, with dozens injured
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Tehran would "pay the price"

In Iran

• Israeli forces say they have attacked Iran’s nuclear sites, including the Arak heavy water reactor and the Natanz uranium enrichment plant
• Iran has filed a complaint with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Elsewhere

• Donald Trump has approved plans to attack Iran, but hasn't made a final decision on whether to go ahead, according to the BBC's US partner CBS

Stay with us for the latest developments.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long warned that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons.

After Israel launched attacks on Iran last week, Netanyahu said Iran could produce a bomb within months.

BBC Verify's Ros Atkins explains what we know about Iran's nuclear programme.

Victoria Gill
Science correspondent

While attacks have targeted Iran’s nuclear programme, they have focused on uranium enrichment facilities.

Damage to those sites does not pose the risk of a “nuclear incident” the likes of disasters at Chernobyl or Fukushima, experts have told BBC News.

That’s because there is no nuclear reaction taking place in an enrichment facility.

In a nuclear power station’s reactor, atoms of uranium are split in a controlled fission reaction that produces heat for power and waste products that are more radioactive than the uranium fuel.

Enrichment facilities, on the other hand, simply produce the fuel.

Nuclear materials scientist Simon Middleburgh from Bangor University explains that if an enrichment facility were bombed “the uranium being enriched would be ejected from the facility - possibly into the environment.

“But no nuclear reaction is likely to occur, and therefore the hazards would remain local and pose no radiological risk beyond a small exclusion zone around the facility.”

Image source, Getty Images

Let's step away from the Israeli hospital for a moment.

Nuclear sites, including the Arak heavy water reactor and the Natanz facility, were attacked by Israel overnight, as we've mentioned earlier.

Iran's official news agency, IRNA, says Iran has reported the attack to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), accusing Israel of "continuing its aggression and actions contrary to international laws that prohibit attacks on nuclear facilities".

The agency also reports there were no casualties in the attack on the Arak nuclear site.