Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, as a week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.
US President Donald Trump, who has kept the world guessing about whether the US might join the war on Israel's side, said he would make a decision within the next two weeks.
"Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks," press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, quoting a message from the president.
As president, Mr Trump has commonly used "two weeks" as a timeframe for making decisions, meaning it may not be a firm deadline.
"Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the Supreme Leader to do that, and it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon," Ms Leavitt said.
Israel launched a sweeping aerial campaign against Iran, calling it a preemptive strike to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has denied plans to develop such weapons and retaliated by launching counterstrikes on Israel.
Following an Iranian strike which damaged the Soroka hospital in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran's "tyrants" would pay the "full price".
His defence minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the "Ayatollah regime".
Mr Netanyahu has said that Israel's military attacks could result in the toppling of Iran's leaders, and Israel would do whatever is necessary to remove the "existential threat" posed by Tehran.
Earlier, Israel said it had struck Iran's Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites.
It also targeted the partially built Arak heavy-water research reactor, also known as Khondab, in central Iran.
Airbus Defense satellite imagery published by the Open Source Centre, a London-based research group, showed a large, blackened hole in the roof of the Arak reactor and destroyed heavy water distillation towers nearby.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said it had information that the heavy-water research reactor had been hit, but did not contain radioactive material. It had no information that a separate plant there which makes heavy water had been hit.
Mr Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it.
Yesterday, he said nobody knows what he will do.
A day earlier he mused on social media about killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, then demanded Iran's unconditional surrender.
A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel.
Israel, which has the most advanced military in the Middle East, has been fighting on several fronts since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack triggered the Gaza war. It has severely weakened Iran's regional allies, the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah, and bombed Yemen's Houthis.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
The extent of the damage inside Iran from the week-old bombing campaign has become far more difficult to assess in recent days, with the authorities apparently seeking to prevent panic by limiting information.
Iran has stopped giving updates on the death toll, and state media have ceased showing widespread images of destruction.
As of last Sunday, Israeli strikes had killed 224 people across Iran, according to figures from Iranian state media.
The internet in Iran has been almost completely shut down while the public has been banned from filming, with the authorities citing a risk of espionage.
Israel has issued evacuation orders for whole sections of Tehran, a city of 10 million.
Thousands of residents have fled, jamming the motorways out.
Live: Iran's Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist', says Katz
Inside Israel, Iran's retaliatory missile strikes over the past week have been the first time in decades of shadow war that a significant number of Iranian projectiles have pierced defences and killed Israelis in their homes.
The director general of the Israeli hospital that was damaged in Beersheba, Shlomi Kodesh, told reporters at the site that a missile strike had destroyed several wards and injured 40 people, mostly staff and patients.
"We're trying to minimise the number of people at Soroka. At the moment, we don't know if buildings may collapse or if wards might collapse," he said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they were targeting Israeli military and intelligence headquarters located near the hospital. An Israeli military official denied there were military targets nearby and said the attack on a hospital was deliberate.
Missiles also hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
