Israel is 'being punished right now', says Iran's supreme leader as missile exchange continues
20 June 2025, 11:41 | Updated: 20 June 2025, 11:48
Iran's leader has said Israel is "being punished right now" in a message shared on social media.
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Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei seemingly announced that Iran was continuing attacks on Israel.
He wrote: "The Zionist enemy is being punished. It is being punished right now."
Israel also said it conducted air strikes into Friday morning with more than 60 aircraft hitting what it said were industrial sites to manufacture missiles in Iran.
It said it hit the headquarters of Iran's Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its acronym in Farsi, SPND. The US has linked the agency to alleged Iranian research and testing tied to the possible development of nuclear explosive devices.
Israeli air strikes reached into the city of Rasht on the Caspian Sea early on Friday, Iranian media reported.
Read more: Trump gives two-week window for peace talks as Iran and Israel launch further strikes
The Zionist enemy is being punished. It is being punished right now.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) June 20, 2025
The Israeli military had warned the public to flee the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off to the outside world, it is unclear how many people could see the message.
In Israel, paramedic service Magen David Adom said missiles struck a residential area in southern Israel, causing damage to buildings, including one six-storey building. Crews provided medical treatment to five people with minor injuries, it added.
It comes a day after at least 80 patients and medical workers were wounded in a strike on the Soroka Medical Centre in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Israel's defence minister threatened the Iranian leader after the Iranian missile crashed into the hospital. 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", said defence minister Israel Katz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Donald Trump would "do what's best for America". Speaking from the rubble and shattered glass around the hospital, he added: "I can tell you that they're already helping a lot."
The war between Israel and Iran erupted on June 13 with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, senior generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds wounded.
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%, a short technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear weapons programme but has never acknowledged it.
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.
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