WASHINGTON (TNND) — Israel's defense minister threatened Iran's supreme leader on Thursday after aerial attacks continued overnight, striking the main hospital in southern Israel and hitting several residential buildings near Tel Aviv.

At least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missiles, four of them seriously, according to Israel's Health Ministry. The vast majority were lightly wounded, including more than 70 people from the Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "cowardly" for targeting hospitals and residential buildings as he "sits in the depths of the fortified bunker."

These are war crimes of the most serious kind - and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes," he added. "The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to the State of Israel and undermine the ayatollahs' regime.

Earlier this week, U.S. officials said that President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei.

He later posted on Truth Social, demanding "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" and alerted the leader that the U.S. knows where he is but has no plans to kill him, "at least not for now."

Khamenei responded by saying Iran will not surrender and issued a warning that U.S. intervention would cause "irreparable damage."

"It isn’t wise to tell the Iranian nation to surrender. What should the Iranian nation surrender to?" the supreme leader posted on X. "We will never surrender in response to the attacks of anyone. This is the logic of the Iranian nation. This is the spirit of the Iranian nation."

The conflict began last Friday when Israel launched a "preemptive strike" against Iran to head off what they described as an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack on the hospital and vowed to "exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran."

Forty Israeli Air Force fighter jets hit "key sites tied to Iran's nuclear weapons and missiles programs," including the Arak facility, according to the IDF.

“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the military said.

Iranian state TV said there was “no radiation danger whatsoever” from the attack on the Arak site.

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

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would travel to Geneva for meetings with his European counterparts on Friday, indicating a new diplomatic initiative might be taking shape. Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the meeting would include foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, France and Germany and the European Union’s top diplomat.

Trump has said he wants something “much bigger” than a ceasefire and has not ruled out the U.S. joining in Israel’s campaign.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers on Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing possible options to Trump as he decides his next steps on Iran.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.