Israel's deputy foreign affairs minister said Iran's hit on the Soroka hospital on Thursday 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.

The current supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made final decisions on economy, education, environment, foreign policy, national planning, and almost everything else in the country.

The Arak, or IR-40 nuclear reactor is a Heavy Water nuclear reactor located in northeastern Iran. At its conception in 2003, Arak was intended to be a large-scale producer of Heavy Water for Iran. This was concerning because of Heavy Water's usefulness in producing and enriching weapons grade Plutonium.