A hospital in the Israeli town of Beersheba has been hit as Iran fired a barrage of missiles at the country, with the conflict between the two nations continuing into a seventh day.

Iran said it had targeted a military site close to the hospital, not the facility itself. With strikes being reported in several locations across Israel, the country’s health ministry said 271 people had been injured.

After visiting the Soroka Medical Centre on Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran’s supreme leader “can no longer be allowed to exist”.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it had targeted Iran’s nuclear sites including the “inactive” Arak heavy water reactor and Natanz facility.

The conflict began on 13 June, when Israel launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and killed several top generals and nuclear scientists.

Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister said Iran’s hit on the Soroka hospital was “deliberate” and “criminal”.

In a post on X, Sharren Haskel said the site was the main medical centre for Israel’s entire Negev region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran”.

While Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz told reporters: “[Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals.”

BBC correspondents in the area described the scale of the damage as extensive, with debris and plumes of smoke floating through the air long after the blast.

Several wards were completely destroyed as fire spread through one of the buildings, causing windows to smash and ceilings to collapse, hospital authorities said.

About 200 patients will be transferred to other hospital centres, Prof Shlomi Codish, chief executive of the Soroka hospital said.