These are the latest updates from day 623 of the war:

■ At least 44 people were wounded by an Iranian missile strike in Haifa, one of whom is in serious condition, and two were moderately wounded. Two impact sites were reported in southern Israel, while seven sites were found to have interception debris, though no injuries were reported.

■ Security officials estimated the missile that exploded in southern Israel was fitted with a cluster warhead.

■ IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir addressed the public, saying that the country must prepare for a “prolonged campaign” and that the army is ready for it.

■ Five people were lightly wounded after an Iranian missile hit Be’er Sheva earlier on Friday. The Israeli army said that the interceptor sent to avert the hit malfunctioned.

■ Israel attacked the Iranian port city of Bushehr, home to the country’s only nuclear power plant, according to Iranian reports.

■ The International Atomic Energy Agency reported an acute danger from radiation and chemical substances at the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran.

■ Iran’s foreign minister arrived for talks with top European diplomats in Geneva about the crisis that centers on concerns about his country’s nuclear program.

■ The U.K. government and the Swiss foreign ministry announced that they have decided to temporarily close their embassies in Iran, citing intense military operations there and the highly unstable situation on the ground.

■ Israeli fire killed at least 44 Palestinians in Gaza, many of whom had been trying to get food.

■ The IDF and the Shin Bet announced that they had assassinated Ibrahim Abu Shumala, the director of finance in Hamas’ military wing and aide to the deputy commander of the military wing, Marwan Issa.

■ The United Nations’ children’s agency warned of a looming man-made drought in Gaza as its water systems collapse.

Separate Iranian strikes hit a high-rise apartment building in Tel Aviv and other sites in central Israel. At least 40 people were injured, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service.

Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, its latest attack on the country’s sprawling nuclear programme, on the seventh day of a conflict that began with a surprise wave of Israeli air strikes targeting military sites, senior officers and nuclear scientists.

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, though most have been shot down by Israel’s multi-tiered air defences, which detect incoming fire and shoot down missiles heading toward population centres and critical infrastructure.

A missile hit the Soroka Medical Centre, which has more than 1,000 beds and provides services to the approximately one million residents of Israel’s south.

A hospital statement said several parts of the centre were damaged and that the emergency room was treating several minor injuries. The hospital was closed to all new patients except for life-threatening cases.

The Israeli air defence system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv (Leo Correa/AP/PA)

Many hospitals in Israel activated emergency plans in the past week, converting underground parking to hospital floors and moving patients underground, especially those who are on ventilators or are difficult to move quickly.

Iranian state TV, meanwhile, reported the attack on the Arak site, saying there was “no radiation danger whatsoever”.

An Iranian state television reporter, speaking live in the nearby town of Khondab, said the facility had been evacuated and there was no damage to civilian areas around the reactor.

Israel had warned earlier on Thursday that it would attack the facility and urged the public to flee the area.

The Israeli military said Thursday’s round of air strikes targeted Tehran and other areas of Iran, without elaborating.

The strikes came a day after Iran’s supreme leader rejected US calls for surrender and warned any military involvement by the Americans would cause “irreparable damage to them”.

Already, Israel’s campaign has targeted Iran’s enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran and a nuclear site in Isfahan. Its strikes have also killed top generals and nuclear scientists.

A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded.

Israeli security forces inspect a destroyed building in Holon, near Tel Aviv, that was hit by a missile (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP/PA)

In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds.

The Arak heavy water reactor is 155 miles south-west of Tehran.

Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons.

That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.

Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns.

In 2019, Iran started up the heavy water reactor’s secondary circuit, which at the time did not violate Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The UK at the time was helping Iran redesign the Arak reactor to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, stepping in for the US, which had withdrawn from the project after President Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw America from the nuclear deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14.

Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s heavy water production – meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran’s production and stockpile.