Israeli rescuers say two injured in Iran missile barrage

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service reported two people injured by shrapnel on Friday, including a 16-year-old in serious condition, after the latest barrage of missiles fired from Iran.

“MDA medics and paramedics are providing medical treatment and are taking a 16-year-old boy to the hospital in serious condition, with shrapnel in his upper body, and a 54-year-old man in moderate condition with a shrapnel injury to his lower limbs,” the MDA said in a statement, without specifying their location.

A military official said that “approximately 20 missiles were launched towards Israel” in this last Iranian salvo.

Sirens sounded in Jerusalem and across Israel on Friday afternoon after the army said missiles had been fired from Iran.

Around 20 minutes later, the army released a statement saying people were allowed to leave protected spaces.

Earlier Friday, sirens rang out in parts of the country following an Iranian missile launch.

Police later said they were operating “at the site of a projectile impact” in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, alongside emergency response teams and bomb disposal experts.

AFP footage from the impact scene showed security forces inspecting a crater near residential buildings, where the wreckage of charred cars lay below the mangled metal of destroyed balconies.

Israel, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, launched a massive wave of strikes last week, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran.

The death toll in Israel from Iranian missile strikes since June 13 is 25 people, according to authorities.

Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.

‘Europeans Must Take ‘Firm Stance’ With Iran In Nuclear Talks’

European foreign ministers must take a “firm stance” in talks Friday with their Iranian counterpart on Tehran’s nuclear programme, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is meeting his French, German, British and EU counterparts in the Swiss city, with the Europeans aiming for a diplomatic solution to the Iran-Israel war.

Israel, claiming Iran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon, launched air strikes against its arch-enemy a week ago, triggering deadly exchanges.

French President Emmanuel  Macron said earlier the European powers hoped to offer a “diplomatic solution” to end the Iran-Israel war at the Geneva talks.

“It’s clear Israel is not part of that meeting,” the country’s ambassador Daniel Meron told journalists outside the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“We expect the European foreign ministers to take a firm stance vis-a-vis Iran,” he said.

Meron accused Iran of seeking to destabilise the region and beyond with its “terrorist proxies” and

On the ground, Israel’s military said it struck dozens of targets in Tehran overnight, including what it called a centre for the “research and development of Iran’s nuclear weapons project”.

Meron was speaking shortly before Araghchi was due to address Human Rights Council, which Israel no longer participates in.